W^^^^!^^Mii^^!^^:^^^i^^^f^^^^i^^^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 


Carle ton  Shay 


p^ 


THE 

IMPREGNAll 

ROCK  OF 


r 


HOLY  SCRIPTURIi 


THE 


IMPREGNABLE    ROCK 


OF 


HOLY    SCRIPTURE. 


WILLIAM    E.  GLADSTONE,   M.  P. 


THE 


IMPRCGNSBLC 

ROCK 

HOLY 

SCPIPTIIRK 


HON.  W.  C.  fiLSIXSTONia 


PHILHDCLPHIA 
HCKRV  SLTCMUS 


(  \i(H'rI"  1  il      I  S!nfi     liv   T-TF^fl'^ 


■  INKY      ALTIMUt,      MANUrACTUKKk,      PB  I  LADKLfU  I  A. 


'        PREFATORY   NOTE. 


The  additions,  which  in  the  course  of 
revision  have  been  made  to  these  Essays,  are 
in  the  nature  of  amphfied  or  newly  suppHed 
argument,  and  do  not  affect  their  general 
tenor. 

In  the  jfezvisli  Chronicle  of  September  12, 
1890,  I  find  a  paragraph  which  appears  to 
approve  the  general  argument  of  my  article 
on  "The  Mosaic  Legislation,"  but  impugns 
the  statement  that  the  Massorites  were  a 
body  without  a  parallel  in  history,  and  that 
the  Hebrews  were  alone  in  building  up  a 
regularly  scientific  method  of  handling  the 
material  forms  of  their  sacred  oracles.  I 
have  not  the  slightest  pretension  to  speak 
with  authority  upon  this  subject,  and  I  did 
no  more  than  endeavor  to  report  faithfully 
what  I  gathered  from  trustworthy  sources. 
But  I  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  my 
readers  have  been  misled.  As  regards  the 
Hindus,  I  understand  it  is  stated  that  they 
.  counted  verses,  words,  syllables,  and  letters; 
but  it  does  not  appear  that  this  statement  is 

(5) 


6  PREFACE. 

one  historically  authenticated.  Even  if  it 
were  so,  and  if  we  add  that  the  Samaritans 
imitated  the  proceedings  of  their  Jewish 
brethren,  and  that  similar  enumeration  was 
made  by  Syrians  or  others,  yet  the  answer 
remains  that  such  a  computation  is  a  very  \ 
small  component  part  of  the  Massorah,  and 
can  no  more  be  called  an  equivalent  to  it  ' 
than  a  human  limb  can  be  called  a  human 
body.  To  the  Massorah,  so  far  as  I  can 
learn,  there  is  nothing  approaching  an  equiv- 
alent. As  respects  the  Greeks,  they  had  no 
sacred  writings  at  all;  and  I  am  unaware  of 
their  having  used,  in  any  case,  any  such 
method  as  is  here  in  question. 


CONTENTS. 


FAGB 

I.    FIRST    VIEW     OF     THE     IMPREGNABLE    ROCK 

OF    HOLY    SCRIPTURE        ....  9 

II.    THE   CREATION    STORY 39 

III.    THE   OFFICE   AND    WORK     OF   THE   OLD    TES- 
TAMENT   IN    OUTLINE       ....  95 

IV.    THE    PSALMS ^4^ 

V.    THE   MOSAIC    LEGISLATION      ....  189 

VI.   ON  THE  RECENT  CORROBORATIONS  OF  SCRIPT- 
URE   FROM    THE     REGIONS    OF     HISTORY 

AND   NATURAL   SCIENCE             .           .           .  239 

VII.   CONCLUSION 279 


(7) 


First  View  of  the  Impregnable  Rock 
of  Holy  Scripture. 


First  View  of  the  Impregnable  Rock 
of  Holy  Scripture. 

IT  is  a  serious  question  how  far  one  igno- 
rant, like  myself,  of  Hebrew,  and  hav- 
ing no  regular  practice  in  the  study  and 
explanation  of  the  text  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, is  entitled  to  attempt  representations 
concerning  it,  which  must  present  more  or 
less  the  character  of  advice,  to  any  portion 
of  his  fellow-countrymen.  It  is  clear  that 
he  can  draw  no  sufficient  warrant  for  such 
a  course  from  the  mere  warmth  of  his  de- 
sire to  arrest  a  prevailing  mischief,  or  from 
his  fear  lest  any  portion  of  the  public 
should  lose  or  relax  unawares  their  hold 
upon  tlie  Book  which  Christendom  regards 
as  an  inestimable  treasure,  and  thereby  bring 
upon  themselves,  as  well  as  others,  an'ih- 
expressible  calamity.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  has  some  better  pleas  to  urge. 
The  first  is,  that  there  is  a  very  large  sec- 
tion of  the  community  whose  opportunities 
or  judgment  have  been  materially  smaller 
than  his  own.     The  second  is,  that  though 


12  THE   IMPREGNABLE   ROCK 

he  is  greatly  wanting  in  the  valuable  quali- 
fications which  grow  out  of  special  study- 
in  this  field,  he  has,  for  more  than  forty 
years  (believing  that  change  of  labor  is  to  a 
great  extent  the  healthiest  form  of  recrea- 
tion), devoted  the  larger  part  of  all  such 
time  as  he  could  properly  withdraw  from 
political  duties  to  another,  and  in  several 
respects  a  similar,  field  of  specialism ; 
namely,  the  earnest  study  of  prehistoric 
antiquity  and  of  its  documents  in  regard  to 
the  Greek  race,  whose  destinies  have  been, 
after  those  of  the  Hebrews,  the  most  won- 
derful in  themselves,  and  the  most  fertile  of 
results  for  us,  among  all  the  races  of  man- 
kind. As  between  this  field,  which  has  for 
its  central  point  the  study  of  Homer,  and 
that  of  the  early  Scriptures,  which  may  in 
tlie  mass  be  roughly  called  contemporary 
with  the  Homeric  period,  much  light  is, 
and  with  the  progress  of  research  more  can 
liardly  fail  to  be,  given  and  received.  More- 
over, I  have  there  had  the  opportunity  of 
perceiving  how,  among  specialists  as  with 
other  men,  there  may  be  fashions  of  the 
time  and  school,  which  Lord  Bacon  called 
idols  of  the  market-place,  and  currents  of 
prejudice  below  the  surface,  such  as  to  de- 
tract somewhat  from  the  authority  which 
each  inquirer  might  justly  claim  in  his 
own   field,  and  from  their  title    to  impose 


OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 


13 


their  conclusions  upon  mankind.  As  a  ju- 
dicious artist  likes  to  know  the  opinion  even 
of  one  not  an  expert  on  his  picture,  and 
sometimes  derives  benefit  from  it,  so  in  all 
studies  lisfhts  may  be  thrown  inwards  from 
without ;  and  this  in  far  the  largest  degree 
where  the  special  branch  deals  with  a  sub- 
ject-matter that  both  takes  deep  root  in  our 
nature,  and  is  the  source  of  profoundly  in- 
teresting controversies  for  mankind  at  large. 
Yet  I  do  not  feel  sure  that  these  consid- 
erations would  have  led  me  to  make  the 
present  attempt,  were  they  not  capped  with 
another  of  great  importance.  It  appears  to 
me  that  we  may  grant,  for  argument's  sake, 
to  the  negative  or  destructive  specialist  in 
the  field  of  the  ancient  Scriptures  all  w^hich 
as  a  specialist  he  can  by  possibility  be  en- 
titled to  ask,  respecting  the  age,  text,  and 
authorship  of  the  books,  and  yet  may  hold 
firmly,  as  firmly  as  of  old,  to  the  ideas  justly 
conveyed  by  the  title  I  have  adopted  for 
these  papers,  and  may  invite  our  fellow-men 
to  stand  along  with  us  on  "  the  impregnable 
rock  of  Holy  Scripture." 

These  words  sound  like  a  challenge. 
And  they  are  a  challenge  to  some  extent, 
but  not  in  the  sense  that  might  be  supposed. 
They  are  a  challenge  to  accept  the  Scrip- 
tures on  the  moral  and  spiritual  and  histori- 
cal ground  of  their  character  in  themselves. 


14  THE   IMPREGNABLE  ROCK 

and  of  the  work  which  they,  and  the  agen- 
cies associated  with  them,  have  done  in  the 
world  for  some  thousands  of  years,  and  are 
doing  still.  We  may,  without  touching  the 
domain  of  the  critic,  contend  for  them  as 
corresponding  by  their  contents  to  the  idea 
of  a  Divine  revelation  to  man.  We  are 
entitled  to  attempt  to  show  that  they  afford 
that  kind  of  proof  of  such  a  revelation, 
which  is  analogous  to  the  known  divine 
operations  in  other  spheres  ;  which  binds  us 
as  to  conduct ;  and  which  in  other  matters, 
from  the  simple  fact  that  we  are  rational 
beings,  we  recognize  as  entitled  so  to  bind 
us.  And  again,  we  may  legitimately  ask 
whether  they  do  not  differ  in  such  a  manner 
from  the  other  documents  of  historic  and 
prehistoric  religions,  while  these  too  are 
precious  in  various  ways,  as  to  make  them 
witnesses  and  buttresses  to  the  office  of 
Holy  Scripture,  rather  than  sharers  in  it,  al- 
though in  their  degree  they  may  be  this  also. 
But  all  these  assertions  lie  within  the 
moral  and  spiritual  precinct.  No  one  of 
them  begs  any  literary  question  of  Old 
Testament  criticism.  They  leave  absolutely 
open  every  issue  that  has  been  or  can  be 
raised  respecting  the  origin,  date,  authorship 
and  text  of  the  sacred  books,  which  for  the 
present  purpose  we  do  not  require  even  to  call 
sacred.     Indeed  it  maybe  that  this  destruc- 


OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE.  15 

tive  criticism,  if  entirely  made  good,  would, 
in  the  view  of  an  inquiry  really  searching, 
comprehensive,  and  philosophical,  leave  as 
its  result  not  less  but  greater  reason  for 
admiring  the  hidden  modes  by  which  the 
great  Artificer  works  out  His  designs.  For, 
in  proportion  as  the  means  are  feeble,  per- 
plexed, and  to  all  appearance  confused,  is 
the  marvel  of  the  results  that  are  made  to 
stand  before  our  eyes.  And  the  upshot  may 
come  to  be,  that,  on  this  very  ground  we 
may  have  to  cry  out  with  the  Psalmist* 
absorbed  in  worshipping  admiration,  "  Oh, 
that  men  would  therefore  praise  the  Lord 
for  His  goodness,  and  declare  the  wonders 
that  He  doeth  for  the  children  of  men  !  " 
For  "  How  unsearchable  are  His  judgments, 
and  His  ways  past  finding  out."  For  the 
memories  of  men,  and  the  art  of  writing, 
and  the  care  of  the  copyist,  and  the  tablet 
and  the  rolls  of  parchment,  are  but  the 
secondary  or  mechanical  means  by  which 
the  Word  has  been  carried  down  to  us 
along  the  river  of  the  ages;  and  the  natural 
and  inherent  weakness  of  these  means  is 
but  a  special  tribute  to  the  grandeur  and 
vastness  of  the  end,  and  of  Him  that 
wrought  it  out. 

So,  then,  these  high-sounding  words  have 
been  placed  in  the  foreground  of  the  present 
*  Ps.  cvii.  8. 


j6         the  impregnable  rock 

observations,  because  they  convey  in  a  posi- 
tive and  definite  manner  the  conclusion  which 
the  observations  themselves  aim  at  sustain- 
ing, at  least  in  outline,  on  general  grounds 
of  reason,  and  at  enforcing  as  a  commanding 
rule  of  thought  and  life.  They  lead  up-  < 
wards  and  onwards  to  the  idea  that  the  j; 
Scriptures  are  well  called  Holy  Scriptures  ;  i 
and  that,  though  assailed  by  camp,  b\^  bat- 
tery, and  by  mine,  they  are  nevertheless  a 
house  builded  upon  a  rock,  and  that  rock 
impregnable  ;  that  the  weapon  of  offence, 
which  shall  impair  their  efficiency  for  aiding 
in  the  redemption  of  mankind,  has  not  yet 
been  forged ;  that  the  Sacred  Canon,  which 
it  took  (perhaps)  two  thousand  years  from 
the  accumulations  of  Moses  down  to  the 
acceptance  of  the  Apocalypse  to  construct, 
is  like  to  wear  out  the  storms  and  the  sun- 
shine of  the  world,  and  all  the  wayward 
aberrations  of  humanity,  not  merely  for  a 
term  as  long,  but  until  time  shall  be  no 
more. 

And  yet,  upon  the  very  threshold,  I  em- 
brace, in  what  I  think  a  substantial  sense, 
one  of  the  great  canons  of  modern  criticism, 
which  teaches  us  that  the  Scriptures  are  to 
be  treated  like  any  other  book  in  the  trial  of 
their  title.  The  volume,  which  is  put  into 
our  hands  when  young  under  that  venerated 
name,  is,  like  any  other  volume,  made  with 


OF  HOL  Y  SCRIPTURE. 


17 


paper,  types  and  ink,  and  has  been  put  to- 
gether as  a  material  object  by  human  hands. 
The  many  and  diversified  utterances  it  con- 
tains proceeded  from  the  mouth  or  pen  of 
men  ;  and  the  question,  whether  and  in  what 
degree,  through  supernatural  guidance,  they 
were,  for  this  purpose,  more  than  men,  is  to 
be  determined,  like  other  disputable  ques- 
tions, by  the  evidence.  Tlie  books  have 
been  transmitted  to  us  from  their  formation 
onwards  in  perishable  materials,  and  from 
remote  dates.  They  were  so  transmitted, 
until  four  hundred  years  ago,  by  the  agency 
of  copyists,  as  in  the  case  of  other  literary 
productions,  and  presumably  with  a  like 
liability  to  casual  error  or  to  fraudulent  hand- 
ling. That  in  some  sense  the  Holy  Script- 
ures contain  something  of  a  human  element 
is  clear,  as  to  the  New  Testament,  from  di- 
versities of  reading,  from  slight  conflicts  in 
the  narrative,  and  from  an  insignificant 
number  of  controverted  cases  as  to  the 
authenticity  of  the  text.  We  have  also  the 
Latin  Vulgate  partially  competing  with  the 
Greek  original,  on  the  ground  tiiat  it  has 
been  more  or  less  founded  on  manuscripts 
older  than  any  we  now  possess.  As  regards 
the  Old  Testament,  we  find  the  established 
Hebrew  Text  to  be  founded  on  MSS.  of  a 
date  not  earlier  than  (I  believe)  the  tenth 
century  of  our  era.  It  is,  moreover,  at  vari- 
2 


1 8  THE   IMPREGNABLE   ROCK 

ance  in  many  points  with  the  Greek  version, 
commonly  termed  the  Septuagint ;  which  is 
considered  to  date  wholly  or  in  the  main 
from  the  third  century  before  the  Advent  of 
our  Saviour,  and  the  framers  of  which  had 
before  them  copies  older  by  more  than  a 
thousand  years.  Thus  the  accuracy  of  the 
text,  the  age  and  authorship  of  the  books,, 
open  up  a  vast  field  of  purely  literary 
controversy;  and  such  a  question  as  whether 
the  closing  verses  of  St.  Mark's  Gospel* 
have  the  authority  of  Scripture  must  be 
determined  by  literary  evidence,  as  much 
as  the  genuineness  of  the  pretended  pre- 
face to  the  ^neid,  or  of  a  particular 
stanza  which  appears  in  an  ode  of  Ca- 
tullus.t 

Towards  summing  up  these  observations, 
I  will  remind  the  reader  that  those  who  be- 
lieve in  a  Divine  Revelation,  as  pervading 
or  as  contained  in  the  Scriptures,  and  es- 
pecially those  who  accept  the  full  doctrine 
of  literalism  as  to  the  vehicle  of  that  inspi- 
ration, have  to  lay  their  account  with  the 
following  (among  other)  considerations, 
which  it  is  hard  for  them  to   repudiate  as 

*  I  have  never  seen  a  confutation  of  the  reasonings 
of  Dean  Burgon  in  his  Irentise  on  this  subject.  He  sup- 
ports the  text  as  it  stands.  The  marginal  note  in  the 
Revised  Version  is  surely  unsatisfactory,  for  it  does  not 
tell  the  whole  case,  but  only  a  part,  about  the  manuscripts. 

\  Carm.  LII.   13-16. 


OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 


19 


inadmissible.     There    may    possibly    have 
been — 

1.  Imperfect  comprehension  of  that  which 
was  divinely  communicated  : 

2.  Imperfect  expression  of  what  had  once 
been  comprehended  : 

3.  Lapse  of  memory  in  oral  transmission  : 

4.  Errors  of  copyists  in  written  trans- 
mission : 

5.  Changes  with  the  lapse  of  time  in  the 
sense  of  words : 

6.  Variations  arising  from  renderings  into 
different  tongues,  especially  as  between  the 
Hebrew  text  and  the  Septuagint : 

7.  The  inspired  writers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment varied  in  the  text  they  used  for  cita- 
tions from  the  Old  Testament,  and  did  not 
regard  either  the  Hebrew  or  the  Greek  as 
of  exclusive  authority: 

8.  There  are  three  variant  chronologies 
of  the  Old  Testament,  according  to  the 
Hebrew,  the  Septuagint,  and  the  Samaritan 
Pentateuch  respectively ;  and  it  would  be 
unwarrantable  to  claim  for  any  one  of  them, 
as  against  the  others,  the  absolute  sanction 
of  a  Divine  revelation :  while  an  historical 
argument  of  some  importance  may  be 
deducible,  on  the  other  hand,  from  the  fact 
that  their  variations  lie  within  certain  limits. 

No  doubt  there  will  be  those  who  will 
resent  any  association  between  the  idea  of  a 


20 


THE   IMPREGNABLE   ROCK 


Divine  revelation  and  the  possibility  of  even 
the  smallest  intrusion  of  error  into  its  vehicle. 
This  idea,  however,  is  by  no  means  alto- 
gether a  novelty.  It  is  manifestly  included 
as  a  likelihood,  if  not  a  certaint\',  in  the  fact 
of  continuous  transmission  by  human  means, 
without  continuous  miracle  to  guarantee  it. 
But  further,  ought  they  not  to  bear  in  mind 
that  we  are  bound  by  the  rule  of  reason  to 
look  for  the  same  method  of  procedure  in 
this  great  matter  of  a  written  provision  of 
Divine  knowledge  for  our  needs,  as  in  the 
other  parts  of  the  manifold  dispensation 
under  which  Providence  has  placed  us. 
Now  that  method  or  principle  is  one  of 
sufficiency,  not  of  perfection;  of  sufficiency 
for  the  attainment  of  practical  ends,  not  of 
conformity  to  ideal  standards;  and  the 
question  what  constitutes  that  sufficiency  is 
a  matter  no  more  to  be  judged  of  by  us  in 
relation  to  the  Scriptures,  than  in  relation 
to  any  other  part  of  the  Divine  dispensations, 
on  all  of  which  the  Almighty  appears  to 
have  reserved  His  judgment  to  Himself. 
Bishop  Butler,  I  think,  would  wisely  tell  us 
that  we  are  not  the  judges,  and  that  we  are 
quite  unfit  to  be  the  judges,  what  may  be  the 
proper  amount  and  the  just  conditions  of 
any  of  the  aids  to  be  afforded  us  in  passing 
through  the  discipline  of  life.  I  will  onl}'- 
remark  that  this  default  of  ideal  perfection, 


OF  //oLy  SCRIPTURE.  2 1 

'i 

this  use  of  twilight  instead  of  a  noonday 
blaze,  may  be  adapted  to  our  weakness,  and 
may  be  among  the  appointed  means  of 
exercising-,  and  by  exercise  of  strengthening 
our  faith.  But  what  properly  belongs  to 
the  present  occasion  is  to  point  out  that  if 
probability,  and  not  demonstration,  marks 
the  Divine  guidance  of  our  paths  in  life  as 
a  whole,  we  are  not  entitled  to  require  that 
when  the  Almighty,  in  His  inercy,  makes  a 
special  addition  by  revelation  to  what  He 
has  already  given  to  us  of  knowledge  in 
Nature  and  in  Providence,  that  special  gift 
should  be  unlike  His  other  gifts,  and  should 
have  all  its  lines  and  limits  drawn  out  with 
mathematical  precision. 

I  have  then  admitted,  I  hope  in  terms  of 
sufficient  fulness,  that  my  aim  in  no  way 
embraces  a  controversy  with  the  moderate, 
or  even  with  the  extreme,  developments  of 
textual  criticism.  Dr.  Driver,  the  Regius 
Professor  of  Hebrew  at  Oxford,*  personally 
as  well  as  officially  a  champion  of  the  doc- 
trine that  there  is  a  Divine  revelation,  has 
recently  shown  with  great  clearness  and 
ability  that  the  basis  of  such  criticism  is 
sound  and  undeniable,  whatever  be  its  lia- 
bility to  aberration  either  in  method  or  in 
details.  It  compares  consistencies  and  in- 
consistencies  of  text,  not   simply  as  would 

*   Contemporary  Review,  YthxvLdiry,  1S90,  pp.  215-231. 


22  THE   IMPREGNABLE   ROCK 

be  done  by  an  ordinary  reader,  but  with  all 
the  lights  of  collateral  knowledge.  It  pro- 
nounces on  the  meaning  of  terms  with  the 
authority  derived  from  thorough  acquaint- 
ance with  a  given  tongue,  or  with  language 
at  large.  It  investigates  and  applies  those 
laws  of  growth,  which  operate  upon  lan- 
guage as  they  operate  in  regard  to  a  physical 
organism. 

It  has  long  been  known,  for  example,  that 
portions  of  the  historical  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  such  as  the  Books  of  Chronicles, 
were  of  a  date  very  far  later  than  most  of 
the  events  which  they  record,  and  it  is  widely 
believed  *  that  a  portion  of  the  prophecies 
included  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah, were  later 
than  his  time.  It  is  now  pressed  upon  us 
that,  according  to  the  prevailing  judgment 
of  the  learned,  the  form  in  which  the  older 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  have  come 
down  to  us  does  not  correspond  as  a  rule 
with  their  titles,  and  is  due  to  later  though 
still,  as  is  largely  held,  to  remote  periods; 
and  that  the  law  presented  to  us  in  the 
Pentateuch  is  not  an  enactment  of  a  single 
date,  but  has  been  enlarged  by  a  process  of 
growth,  and  by  gradual  accretions.     To  us 

*  I  am  not  aware,  however,  what  is  the  reply  to  the 
arguments  of  Mr.  Urwick,  who  contends  for  the  unity  of 
authorship.  ("The  Servant  of  Jehovah."  Edinburgh: 
Clark.      1877.) 


OF  HOL  V  SCRIPTURE.  23 

who  are  without  original  means  of  judgment 
these  are,  at  first  hearing,  without  doubt, 
disturbing  announcements.  Yet  common 
sense  requires  us  to  say,  let  them  be  fought 
out  by  the  competent,  but  let  not  us  who 
are  incompetent  interfere.  I  utterly,  then, 
eschew  for  myself  the  responsibility  of  con- 
flict with  these  properly  critical  conclusions. 
But  this  acquiescence  is  subject  to  the 
following  remarks.  First,  the  acceptance 
of  the  conclusions  of  the  critics  has  reference 
to  the  present  literary  form  of  the  works, 
and  leaves  entirely  open  every  question 
relating  to  the  substance.  Any  one  who 
reads  the  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  from  the 
second  to  the  fifth,  must  observe  how  little 
they  present  the  appearance  of  consecutive, 
coherent,  and  digested  record.  But  their 
several  portions  must  be  considered  on  the 
evidence  applicable  to  them  respectively. 
And  the  main  facts  of  the  history  they  con- 
tain have  received  strong  confirmation  from 
Egyptian  and  Eastern  research.  With  re- 
gard to  the  Book  of  Genesis,  the  admission 
which  has  been  made  implies  nothing  adverse 
to  the  truth  of  the  traditions  it  embodies, 
nothing  adverse  to  their  antiquity,  nothing 
which  excludes  or  discredits,  as  to  the  older 
among  them,  the  idea  of  their  having  origi- 
nally formed  part  of  a  primitive  revelation, 
simultaneous  or  successive.     The  forms  of 


24 


THE   IMPREGNABLE   ROCK 


expression  may  have  changed,  yet  the  sub- 
stance may  remain  with  an  altered  hterary 
form;  as  some  scholars  have  thought  (not, 
I  believe,  rightly)  that  the  diction  and 
modelling  of  the  Homeric  Poems  is  com- 
paratively modern,  and  yet  the  matter  they 
embody  may  belong  to  a  remote  antiquity. 
It  is  also  conceivable  that  the  diction  of 
Chaucer,  for  example,  might  be  altered  so 
as  to  conform  to  the  usage  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  to  leave  little  apparent  resem- 
blance to  the  original,  and  yet  the  whole 
substance  of  Chaucer  might  remain. 

Further,  our  assent  to  the  conclusions  of 
the  critics  ought  to  be  strictlv  limited  to  a 
provisional  and  revocable  assent ;  and  this 
on  practical  grounds  of  stringent  obligation. 
For,  firstly,  these  conclusions  appear  to  be 
in  a  great  measure  floating  and  uncertain, 
to  be  the  subject  of  manifold  controversy. 
Secondly,  they  seem  to  shift  and  vary  with 
rapidity  in  the  minds  of  those  who  hold 
them.  In  editing  and  revising  the  work  of 
Bleek,*  Wellhausen  accepts  in  a  great  degree 

*  "Einleitung  in  das  Alte  Testament,"  Haupttheil  I., 
C.  Die  Psalmen.  [The  edition  published  and  adopted 
by  Wellhausen,  to  which  I  refer,  is  dated  1878;  but  the 
book  had  been  published  in  i860.]  So  recently  as  in 
the  fifth  edition  (Berlin,  1886),  the  Bleek-Wellhausen 
work  assigns  much  weight    to  ihe   Davidic  titles;    gives 

too  '      t> 

to  David  nearly  fifty  Psalms  ;  and  holds  that  there  is  no 
Psalm  Inter  than  Nehemiah.  few  so  late.  (Sections  220- 
22,  pages,  457-464,  of  the  Einleitung.') 


OF  HOL  V  SCRIPTURE. 


25 


the  genuineness  of  those  Davidic  Psalms 
which  are  contained  in  the  First  Book  of 
the  Psalter.  But  I  have  been  told  that  this 
position  has  been  abandoned,  and  that, 
standing  as  he  appears  to  do,  at  the  head  of 
the  nesfative  critics,  he  now  brinofs  down 
the  general  body  of  the  Psalms  to  a  date 
very  greatly  below  that  of  the  Babylonia 
exile.  It  is  certainly  unreasonable  to  hold 
a  critic  to  his  conclusions  without  exception. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  asked 
whether,  in  order  to  warrant  confidence, 
they  ought  not  to  exhibit  some  element  of 
stability  ?  The  opening  of  new  sources  of 
information  may  justify  all  changes  fairly 
referable  to  them  ;  and  in  minor  matters  the 
finer  touches  of  the  destructive,  as  well  as 
the  constructive,  artist  may  be  needed  to 
complete  his  work.  But  if  reasonable 
grounds  for  change  do  not  determine  its 
bounds,  there  must  be  limits  on  the  other 
hand  to  the  duty  of  deference  and  submis- 
sion on  the  part  of  the  outer  and  uninstructed 
world,  with  respect  to  these  literary  con- 
clusions. It  seems  doubtful  how  far  they 
present  to  us  that  aggregate  continuity  and 
progression,  which  the  whole  world  recog- 
nizes in  the  case  of  the  physical  sciences; 
and  the  most  liberal  estimate  can  hardh^ 
carr}'  them  firtlier  than  this,  that  we  should 
keep  an  open  mind  till  the  cycle  of  change 


26  THE   IMPREGNABLE  ROCK 

has  been  run  through,  and  till  time  has  been 
given  for  the  detection  of  flaws,  and  for  the 
hearing  of  those  whose  researches  may 
have  led  them  to  different  results. 

In  the  present  instance  we  have  an  ex- 
ample, which  may  not  be  without  force,  in 
support  of  this  warning.  Mr.  Margoliouth, 
the  Laudian  Professor  of  Arabic  at  Oxford, 
and  a  gentleman  of  early  academical  dis- 
tinctions altogether  extraordinary,  has  pub- 
lished his  Inaugural  Lecture,*  in  which  he 
states  his  belief  that,  from  materials  and  by 
means  which  he  lucidly  explains,  it  will  be 
found  possible  to  reconstruct  the  Semitic 
original,  hitherto  unknown,  of  the  Book  of 
Ecclesiasticus.  It  was  written,  as  he  states, 
by  Ben  Sira,  not  in  the  Hebrew  of  the  Pro- 
phets, but  in  the  later  Hebrew  of  the  Rabbis 
(p.  6).  I  understand  that  there  are  three 
great  stages,  or  states,  of  the  Hebrew  to;igue : 
the  Ancient,  the  Middle,  and  the  New  ;  and 
that  of  these  the  earlier  or  classical  Script- 
ures belong  to  the  first,  and  the  Book  of  Ne- 
hemiah  (for  example)  to  the  second.  The 
third  is  the  Rabbinical  stage.  The  passage 
from  one  to  another  of  these  stages  is  held, 
under  the  laws  which  determine  the  move- 
ment of  that  language,  to  require  a  very 
long    time.      Professor     Margoliouth     finds 

*  "  On  tlie   place  of  Ecclesiasticus  in  Semitic  Litera- 
ture."    Clarendon  Press,  1890. 


OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 


27 


that  Ben  Sira  wrote  in  Rabbinical  Hebrew, 
and  the  earHer  we  find  Rabbinical  Hebrew 
in  use,  the  farther  we  drive  into  antiquity  the 
dates  of  books  written  in  middle  and  in  an- 
cient Hebrew.  Suppose,  by  way  of  illus- 
tration, that  Professor  Margoliouth  shows 
Rabbinical  Hebrew  to  have  come  into  use 
two  hundred  years  earlier  than  had  been 
supposed,  the  effect  is  to  throw  back  by  two 
hundred  years  the  latest  date  to  which  a 
book  in  middle  or  in  ancient  Hebrew  could 
be  assigned.  No  wonder,  then,  that  Pro- 
fessor Margoliouth  observes  (p.  22) — 

"Some  students  are  engaged  in  bringing 
down  the  date  of  every  chapter  in  the  Bible 
so  late  as  to  leave  no  room  for  prophecy 
and  revelation." 

But  he  goes  on  to  add  that  if,  by  the  task 
which  he  has  undertaken,  and  by  those  who 
may  follow  and  improve  upon  him,  this 
Book  shall  be  properly  restored, 

"  Others  will  endeavor  to  find  out  how 
early  the  professedly  post-exilian  books  can 
be  put  back,  so  as  to  account  for  the  diver- 
gence between  their  awkward  Middle-He- 
brew and  the  rich  and  eloquent  New-Hebrew 
of  Ben  Sira.  However  this  may  be,  hypoth- 
eses, which  place  any  portion  of  the  clas- 
sical or  Old-Hebrew  Scriptures  between  the 
Middle-Hebrew  of  Nehemiah  and  the  New- 
Hebrew  of   Ben    Sira,  will    surely  require 


28  THE   IMPREGNABLE   ROCK 

some  reconsideration,  or  at  least  have  to  be 
harmonized  in  some  way  with  the  history 
of  the  language,  before  they  can  be  uncon- 
ditionally accepted." 

Hence  the  spectator  from  without,  per- 
ceiving that  there  is  war,  waged  on  critical 
grounds,  in  the  critical  camp  itself,  may 
surmise  that  what  has  been  wittily  called  the 
order  of  disorder  is  more  or  less  menaced 
in  its  central  seat;  and  he  maybe  the  more 
hardened  in  his  determination  not  to  rush 
prematurely  to  final  conclusions  on  the 
serious,  though  not  as  I  suppose  vital,  ques- 
tion respecting  the  age  and  authenticity  of 
the  early  books  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
their  present  literary  form. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  mistaking  the 
indifferent  for  the  essential,  and  as  a  slavish 
adherence  to  traditions  insufficiently  exam- 
ined. But  the  liabilities  of  human  nature 
to  error  do  not  all  lie  on  one  side.  It  may 
on  the  contrary  be  stated  with  some  confi- 
dence that,  when  error  in  a  certain  direction 
after  a  long  precedence  is  effectively  called 
to  account,  it  is  generally  apt,  and  in  some 
cases  certain,  to  be  followed  by  a  reign  of 
prejudices,  or  biassed  judgments,  more  or 
less  extended,  and  in  a  contrary  direction. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  warping  of  the 
mind  in  favor  of  disintegration.  Often  does 
a  critic  brine:  to  the  book  he  examines  the 


OF  HOL  V  SCRIPTURE. 


29 


conclusion  which  he  believes  that  he  has 
drawn  from  it.  Often  when  he  has  not  thus 
imported  it,  yet  the  first  view,  in  remote 
perspective,  of  the  proposition  to  which  he 
leans  will  induce  him  to  rush  at  the  most 
formidable  fences  that  lie  straight  ahead  of 
him,  instead  of  taking  his  chances  of  arriv- 
ing at  it  by  the  common  road  of  reason. 
And  often,  even  when  he  has  attained  his 
conclusion  without  prejudice,  he  will  after 
adopting  defend  it  against  objectors,  not 
with  argument  only,  but  with  all  the  pride 
and  pain  of  wounded  self-love.  And  every 
one  of  these  dangers  is  commonly  enhanced 
in  something  like  the  same  proportion,  in 
which  the  particular  subject-matter  em- 
braces the  highest  interests  of  mankind. 

What  I  would  specially  press  upon  those 
to  whom  I  write  is,  that  they  should  look 
broadly  and  largely  at  the  subject  of  Holy 
Scripture,  especially  of  the  Scriptures  of  the 
older  dispensation,  which  are,  so  to  speak, 
farther  from  the  eye,  and  should  never  allow 
themselves  to  be  won  away  from  that  broad 
and  large  contemplation  into  discussions 
which,  though  in  their  own  place  legitimate, 
nay,  needful,  yet  are  secondary,  and  there- 
fore, when  substituted  for  the  primary,  are 
worse  than  frivolous.  I  do  not  ask  this  from 
them  as  philosophers  or  as  Christians,  but 
as  men  of  sense.     I  ask  them  to  look  at  the 


30 


THE   IMPREGNABLE   ROCK 


subject  as  they  would  look  at  the  British 
Constitution,  or  at  the  poetry  of  Shake- 
speare. If  we  were  pressed  by  the  apparent 
absurdity  that  any  one  branch  of  the  British 
Legislature  can  stop  the  proceedings  of  the 
W'hole,  or  that  the  House  of  Commons  can 
reduce  to  beggary  the  whole  Army,  Navy, 
and  Civil  Service  of  the  country,  and  that 
neither  law  nor  usage  makes  any  provision 
for  meeting  the  case,  and  this  although  there 
would  ensue  from  it  nothing  less  than  a 
frustration  of  the  purposes  for  which  men 
join  together  in  society,  still  there  are  prob- 
ably not  ten  men  in  the  country  whose  esti- 
mate of  the  Constitution  they  live  under 
would  be  affected  by  these  supererogatory 
objections.  And  if  we  are  in  anj^  measure 
to  grasp  the  office,  dignity  and  authority  of 
the  Scriptures,  we  must  not  suppose  we  are 
dealing  adequately  with  that  lofty  subject 
by  exhausting  thought  and  time  in  exam- 
ining whether  Moses  either  edited  or  wrote 
the  Pentateuch  just  as  it  stands,  or  what  was 
the  book  of  the  law  found  in  the  temple  in 
the  time  of  Josiah,  or  whether  it  is  possible 
or  likely  that  any  changes  of  addition  or 
omission  may  have  crept  into  the  text.  If 
the  most  sjreedilv  destructive  among  all  the 
theories  of  the  modern  critics  (rather  seri- 
ousI\'  at  variance  with  one  another)  were 
established  as  true,  it  would  not  avail  to  im- 


OF  HOL  Y  SCRIPTURE. 


31 


pair  the  great  facts  of  the  history  of  man 
with  respect  to  the  Jews,  and  to  the  nations 
of  the  world ;  nor  to  disguise  the  Hght 
which  those  facts  throw  upon  the  pages  of 
the  Sacred  Volume ;  nor  to  abate  the  com- 
manding force  with  which,  bathed,  so  to 
speak,  in  the  flood  of  that  light,  the  Bible 
invites,  attracts,  and  commands  the  adhesion 
of  mankind.  Even  the  moral  problems, 
which  may  be  raised  as  to  particular  por- 
tions of  the  volume,  and  which  may  not 
have  found  any  absolute  and  certain  solu- 
tion, are  surely  lost  in  the  comprehensive 
contemplation  of  its  general  strain,  its  im- 
measurable loftiness  of  aim,  and  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  results  which  it,  and  its  imme- 
diate accompaniments  in  institution  and 
event,  have  wrought  for  our  predecessors  in 
the  journey  of  life,  for  ourselves,  and  for 
the  most  forward,  dominant,  and  responsible 
portions  of  our  race. 

In  a  passage  which  rises  to  the  very  high- 
est level  of  British  eloquence,  Dr.  Liddon,* 
exhausting  all  the  resources  of  our  language, 
has  described,  so  far  as  man  may  describe 
it,  the  ineffable  and  unapproachable  position 
held  by  the  Sacred  Volume.     It  is  too  long 

*  Sermon  preached  at  St.  Paul's  on  the  Second  Sun- 
day in  Advent,  December  1889,  pp.  28--31.  [Sirjce  this 
was  written,  death  has  extinguished  in  Dr.  Liddon  a 
light  of  the  Enghsh  Church,  singularly  bright  and  pure,  j 


32  THE  IMrREGNABLE   ROCK 

to  quote,  too  special  to  appropriate ;  and  to 
make  extracts  would  only  mangle  it.  The 
commanding-  eminence  of  the  great  preacher 
of  our  metropolitan  Cathedral  will  fasten 
the  public  attention  on  tlie  subject,  and  pow- 
erfully serve  to  show  that  the  Scriptures,  in 
their  substantial  tissue,  rise  far  above  the 
region  of  criticism,  which  shows  no  sign  of 
being  about  to  do  anything  permanent  or 
effectual  to  lower  their  moral  and  spiritual 
grandeur,  or  to  disguise  or  intercept  their 
gigantic  work. 

I  turn  to  a  cognate  topic.  The  impres- 
sion prevails  that,  in  this  and  other  coun- 
tries, the  operative  classes,  as  they  are 
termed,  have  at  the  great  centres  of  popu- 
lation, here  and  elsewhere,  largely  lost  their 
hold  upon  the  Christian  creed.  There 
may  be  exaggeration  in  this  belief ;  but,  all 
things  taken  together,  there  is  evidently  a 
degree  of  foundation  for  it.  It  does  not 
mean,  at  least  among  us,  that  they  have 
lost  respect  for  the  Christian  religion,  or 
for  its  ministers  ;  or  that  they  desire  their 
children  to  be  brought  up  otherwise  than 
in  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  it  ;  or  that 
the}^  themselves  have  snapped  the  last  ties 
Avhich,  on  the  cardinal  occasions  of  exist- 
ence, associate  them  with  its  ordinances;  or 
that  they  have  renounced  or  modified  the 
moral  standards  of  conduct,  which  its  con- 


OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 


33 


spicuous  victory  after  an  obstinate  contest 
of  many  centuries,  and  its  lon<T  possession  of 
the  social  field,  have  established.  It  means 
no  more,  but  also  no  less,  than  this,  that 
their  positive  distinct  acceptance  of  the  ar- 
ticles of  the  Creed,  and  their  sense  of  the 
dignity  and  value  of  the  Sacred  Record,  are 
blunted,  or  in  some  cases  even  effaced.* 

In  passing  I  may  be  permitted  to  observe 
that  if  assent  be  more  or  less  largely  with- 
held bv  the  less  well-to-do  segment  of  so- 
ciety,  it  is  still,  notwithstanding  the  scep- 
tical movement  of  the  day,  very  generally 
yielded  in  this  country  by  the  leisured  and 
better  provided  classes  in  most,  though  not 
all,  of  their  branches.  I  simply  state  this 
as  fact,  without  drawing,  in  this  case,  any 
inference. 

There  seems  thus  to  be,  within  certain 
limits,  an  approach  to  a  reversal  of  the  re- 
spective attitudes  which  prevailed  in  the  in- 
fancy of  our  religion.  Then  the  "  poor  " 
were  the  principal  objects  of  the  personal 
ministry  of  Christ   Our    Lord,   and   it  was 

*  As  I  write  in  the  general  interests  of  belief,  and  on 
no  narrower  ground,  it  is  with  deep  regret  that  I  extract 
the  following  statement  from  the  excellent  compilation 
of  Messrs.  Macmillan,  termed  the  Statesman' s  Yiar-Book, 
for  1890.  In  France  account  is  taken  at  the  census  of 
religious  lielief,  and  in  1881,  for  the  first  time,  a  column 
was  provided  for  those  who  declined  to  make  any  dec- 
laration of  belief.  The  number  of  persons  returned 
under  this  head  is  no  less  than  7,684,906. 

3 


34 


THE  IMPREGNABLE   ROCK 


their  glory  to  be  the  readiest  receivers  of 
the  Gospel.  They  were  then,  "  the  poor  of 
this  world,  rich  in  faith,  and  heirs  of  the 
kingdom  which  He  hath  promised  to  them 
that  love  Him."  *  They  had  fewer  ob- 
stacles, especially  within  themselves^  to 
prevent  their  accepting  the  new  religion. 
It  was  less  hard  for  them  to  become  "  as 
little  children."  They  had,  to  all  appear- 
ance, more  palpable  interests  in  the  prom- 
ise of  the  life  to  come,  as  compared  with 
the  possession  of  the  life  that  now  is.  The 
seeming  change  in  their  comparative  fa- 
cility of  access  to  the  Saviour,  as  respects 
belief,  is  one  to  afford  much  matter  for 
meditation.  The  present  purpose  is  to 
deal,  in  slight  outline  at  least,  with  one  of 
its  causes.  For  one  such  cause  certainly 
is  the  wide,  though  more  or  less  vague  dis- 
paragement of  the  Holy  Scriptures  recently 
observable  in  the  surface  currents  of  preva- 
lent opinion,  as  regards  their  title  to  supply 
in  a  supreme  degree  food  for  the  religious 
thought  of  man,  and  authoritative  guidance 
for  his  life. 

Amongst  the  suppositions,  I  believe  er- 
roneous, which  tend  to  produce  this  dis- 
paragement are  the  following. 

I.  That  the  conclusions  of  science  as  to 
natural  objects  have  shaken  or  destroyed 
*  James  ii.  5. 


OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE.  35 

the  assertions  of  the  early  Scriptures  with 
respect  to  the  origin  and  history  of  the 
world,  and  of  man,  its  principal   inhabitant. 

II.  That  their  contents  are  in  many  cases 
offensive  to  the  moral  sense,  and  unworthy 
of  an  enlightened  age. 

III.  That  our  race  made  its  appearance 
in  the  world  in  a  condition  but  one  degree 
above  that  of  the  brute  creation,  and  only 
by  slow  and  painful  but  continual  progress 
has  brought  itself  up  to  the  present  level  of 
its  existence. 

IV.  That  men  have  accomplished  this  by 
the  exercise  of  their  natural  powers ;  and 
have  never  received  the  special  teaching 
and  authoritative  guidance,  which  is  signi- 
fied under  the  name  of  Divine  Revelation. 

V.  That  the  more  considerable  among 
the  different  races  and  nations  of  the  world 
have  devised,  and  established  from  time  to 
time,  their  respective  religions  ;  and  have  in 
many  cases  accepted  the  promulgation  of 
sacred  books,  which  are  to  be  considered 
as  essentially  of  the  same  character  with 
the  Bible. 

VI.  That  the  books  of  the  Bible,  in 
many  most  important  instances,  and  es- 
pecially those  books  of  the  Old  Testament 
which  purport  to  be  the  earliest,  so  far  from 
being  contemporary  with  the  events  which 
they  record,  or  with  the  authors  to  whom 


36 


THE   IMPREGNABLE  ROCK 


they  are  ascribed,  are  comparatively  recent 
compilations  from  uncertain  sources,  and 
are  therefore  without  authority. 

Most  of  the  foregoing  remarks  relate  to 
the  last  of  these  assumptions  ;  and  I  shall 
proceed  to  observe  upon  others  among 
them. 

There  are  propositions  wider  still,  but 
wholly  foreign  to  the  present  purpose  ;  such 
as  that  God  is  essentially  unknowable,  that 
we  have  no  reasonable  evidence  of  a  life 
beyond  the  grave,  and  that  rational  cer- 
tainty is  confined  to  material  objects  and  to 
the  testimony  of  the  senses.  Passing  by 
these  propositions,  I  confine  myself  wholly 
to  what  preceded  them ;  and  I  shall  en- 
deavor, from  some  points  of  view,  to  pre- 
sent an  opposing  view  of  the  spiritual  field. 
Moreover,  as  each  of  these  is  the  subject  of 
a  literature  of  its  own  which  may  be 
termed  scientific,  I  here  premise  that  what 
I  have  to  say  will,  though  I  hope  rational 
and  true,  be  not  systematic  or  complete, 
but  popular  and  partial  only ;  and  will  have 
for  its  immediate  aim  to  show  that  there 
are  grave  reasons  for  questioning  every 
really  destructive  proposition  that  has  been 
advanced,  and  for  withholding  our  assent 
from  them  until  these  reasons  (and,  as  I 
conceive,  many  others)  shall  be  confuted 
and  set  aside. 


OF  HOL  Y  SCRIPTURE. 


37 


I  shall,  however,  as  being  in  duty  bound 
to  follow  the  truth  so  far  as  I  can  discern  it^ 
have  to  make  many  confessions  in  the 
course  of  my  argument  to  the  prejudice, 
not  as  I  trust  of  Christian  belief  or  of  the 
Sacred  Volume,  but  only  of  us,  who  as  its 
students  have  failed  gravely,  and  at  many 
points,  in  the  duty  of  a  temperate  and  cau- 
tious treatment  of  it ;  as  unhappily  we  have 
also  failed,  and  often  more  grossly  failed,  in 
every  other  duty.  But,  as  the  lines  and 
laws  of  duty  at  large  remain  unobscured, 
notwithstanding  the  imperfections  every- 
where diffused,  so  we  may  trust  that  suffi- 
cient light  yet  remains  for  us,  if  duly  fol- 
lowed, whereby  to  establish  the  authority 
and  sufficiency  of  Holy  Scripture  for  its 
high  moral  and  spiritual  purposes.  For 
the  present,  I  have  endeavored  to  point  out 
that  the  operations  of  criticism  properly  so 
called,  affecting  as  they  do  the  literary  form 
of  the  books,  leave  the  questions  of  sub- 
stance, namely,  those  of  history,  miracle, 
and  revelation,  substantially  where  they 
found  them.  I  shall,  in  several  succeeding 
papers,  strive  to  show,  at  least  by  speci- 
mens, that  science  and  research  have  done 
much  to  sustain  the  historical  credit  of  the 
Old  Testament:  that  in  doing  this  they 
have  added  strength  to  the  argument 
which  contends   that    in    them    we    find    a 


38  THE  IMPREGNABLE  ROCK. 

Divine  revelation :  and  that  the  evidence, 
rationally  viewed,  both  of  contents  and  of 
results,  binds  us  to  stand  where  our  fore- 
fathers have  stood,  upon  the  impregnable 
rock  of  Holy  Scripture. 


The  Creation  Story. 


The  Creation  Story. 

"The  rising  birth 
Of  Nature  from  the  unappareiit  deep." 

Par.  Lost.  B.  vii. 

IN  recent  controversies  on  the  trust- 
worthiness of  the  Scripture  record, 
much  has  been  thought  to  turn  on  the 
Creation  Story  ;  and  the  special  and  separate 
importance  thus  attached  to  it  has  given  it 
a  separate  and  prominent  position  in  the 
pubhc  view.  This  constitutes  in  itself  a 
reason  for  addressing  ourselves  at  once  to 
the  consideration  of  it,  apart  from  any- 
more general  investigation  touching  either 
the  older  Scriptures  at  large,  or  any  of  the 
books  which  collectively  compose  them. 

But  there  are  broader  and  deeper  reasons 
for  this  separate  consideration.  It  is  sug- 
gested, first,  by  the  form  which  has  been 
given  to  the  relation  itself  The  narrative, 
given  with  wonderful  succinctness  in  the 
first  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  and 
in  the  first  three  verses  of  the  second 
chapter,  stands  distinct,  in  essential  points, 

(4U 


42  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

from  all  that  follows  in  the  Scriptures,  It 
is  a  solitary  and  striking  example  of  the 
detailed  exposition  of  physical  facts.  For 
such  an  example  we  must  suppose  a  pur- 
pose ;  and  we  have  to  inquire  what  that 
purpose  was.  Next,  it  seems  as  it  were  to 
trespass  on  the  ground  of  science,  and, 
independently  of  investigation  and  of  evi- 
dence, to  assert  a  rival  authority.  And 
further,  forming  no  part,  unless  towards  its 
close,  of  the  history  of  man,  and  nowhere 
touching  directly  on  human  action,  it 
severs  itself  from  the  rest  of  the  Sacred 
Volume,  and  appears  more  as  a  preface  to 
the  history,  than  as  a  part  of  it. 

And  yet  there  are  signs,  in  subsequent 
portions  of  the  Volume,  that  this  tale  of 
the  Creation  was  regarded  by  the  Hebrews 
as  both  authoritative  and  important.  For 
it  gave  form  and  shape  to  portions  of  their 
literature,  in  the  central  department  of  its 
devotions.  Nay,  traces  of  it  may,  perhaps, 
be  found  in  the  Book  of  Job  (xxxviii.), 
where  the  Almighty  challenges  the  patriarch 
on  the  primordial  works  of  creation.  More 
clearly  in  Psalm  civ.,  where  we  have  light, 
the  firmament,  the  waters  and  their  sever- 
ance and  confinement  within  bounds  ;  a  suc- 
cession the  same  as  in  Genesis.  Then  fol- 
low mixedly  the  animal  and  vegetable  crea- 
tions, and  man  as  the  climax  crowns  the 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


43 


series  in  ver.  23.  So  in  Psalm  cxlviii.  we 
have  first  (1-6)  the  heavens,  the  heavenly 
bodies,  and  the  atmosphere;  then,  again 
mixedly,  the  earth  and  the  agents  affecting 
it,  with  the  animate  population  (7-10),  and 
lastly  man.  If  there  be  some  variation  in 
the  order  of  the  details,  still  the  idea  of 
consecutive  development,  or  evolution^ 
which  struck  so  forcibly  the  intelligence  of 
Haeckel,  is  clearly  impressed  upon  the 
whole.  At  a  later  date,  and  only  (so  far  as 
is  known)  in  the  Greek  tongue,  we  find  a 
more  nearly  exact  resemblance  in  the  Song 
of  the  Three  Children.  The  heavenly 
bodies  and  phenomena  occupy  the  first 
division  of  the  Song ;  then  the  earth  is 
invoked  to  bless  the  Lord,  with  its  moun- 
tains, vegetation,  and  waters ;  then  the 
animate  population  of  water,  air,  and  land, 
in  the  order  pursued  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis,  and  with  the  same  remarkable 
omission  of  the  great  kingdom  of  the  Rep- 
tiles at  their  proper  place.  Then  follow  the 
children  of  Men  ;  and  these  fill  the  closing 
portion  of  the  Song.  The  most  noteworthy 
differences  (which,  however,  are  quite  sec- 
ondary, seem  to  be  that  there  is  no  mention 
of  the  first  beginnings  of  vegetation,  and 
no  supplemental  notice,  as  in  Gen.  i.  24-30, 
of  the  reptiles. 

But  also  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  which 


44  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

are  categorically  placed  later  in  Genesis 
than  vegetation,  precede  in  the  Song  any 
notice  of  the  earth.  Let  not  this  difference 
be  hastily  called  a  discrepancy.  Each  mode 
is  to  be  explained  by  considering  the 
character  and  purpose  of  the  composition. 
In  Genesis,  it  is  a  narrative  of  the  action ; 
in  the  Song,  it  is  a  panorama  of  the  spec- 
tacle. Genesis,  as  a  rule,  refers  each  of  the 
great  factors  of  the  visible  world  to  its  due 
■order  of  origin  in  time ;  the  Song  enumer- 
ates the  particulars  as  they  are  presented  to 
the  eye  in  a  picture,  where  the  transcendent 
eminence  of  the  heavenly  bodies  as  they 
are,  and  especially  of  the  sun,  gives  to  this 
group  a  proper  priority. 

But  this  Creation  Story  may  have  an 
importance  for  us  even  greater  than  it  had 
for  the  Hebrews,  or  than  it  could  have  in 
any  of  those  ages  when  all  men  believed, 
perhaps  even  too  freely,  in  special  modes  of 
communication  from  the  Deity  to  man,  and 
had  not  a  stock  of  courage  or  of  audacity 
sufficient  to  question  the  possibility  of  a 
divine  revelation.  For  we  have  now  to 
bear  in  mind  that  the  Book  of  Genesis 
generally  contains  a  portion  of  human  his- 
tory, and  that  all  human  history  is  a  record 
of  human  experience.  It  is  not  so  with  the 
introductory  recital ;  for  the  contents  of  it 
lie    outside  of,  and    anterior    to,    the  very 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  45 

earliest  human  experience.  How  came^ 
then,  this  recital  into  the  possession  of  a 
portion  of  mankind  ? 

It  is  conceivable  that,  a  theory  of  Creation 
and  of  the  ordering  of  the  world  might  be 
bodied  forth  in  poetry,  or  might  under  givea 
circumstances  be,  as  now,  based  on  the  re- 
searches of  natural  science. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  this  recital  cannot 
be  due  to  the  mere  imagination  of  a  poet. 
It  is  in  a  high  degree,  as  we  shall  see^ 
methodical  and  elaborate.  And  there  is 
nothing  either  equalling  or  within  many 
degrees  approaching  it,  which  can  be  set 
down  to  the  account  of  poetry  in  other 
spheres  of  primitive  antiquity,  whatever 
their  poetical  opulence  may  have  been. 
Further,  the  early  Hebrews  do  not  appear 
to  have  cultivated  or  developed  any  poetical 
faculty  at  all,  except  that  which  was  exhib- 
ited in  strictly  religious  work,  such  as  the 
devotions  of  the  Psalms,  and  (principally) 
the  discourses  and  addresses  of  the 
Prophets. 

As  they  were  not,  in  a  general  sense, 
poetical,  so  neither  were  they  in  any  sense 
scientific.  By  tradition,  and  by  positive 
records,  we  know  pretty  well  what  kinds 
-  of  knowledge  were  pursued  in  very  early 
ages.  They  were  most  strictly  practical. 
Take,  for  example,  astronomy  among   the 


46 


THE   CREATION  STORY. 


Chaldees,  or  medicine  among  the  Egyp- 
tians. The  necessities  of  Hfe  then,  as  now, 
pressed  upon  man.  We  may  say  with 
much  confidence  that  in  remote  antiquity 
there  existed  no  science  hke  geology, 
aiming  to  give  a  history  of  the  earth. 
So,  again,  there  was  no  cosmogony,  pro- 
fessing to  convey  a  history  of  the  kosuios 
as  then  understood  ;  which  would  have  in- 
cluded, togetjier  with  the  earth,  the  sun, 
moon,  planets,  and  atmosphere. 

When,  at  a  later  date,  speculation  on 
physical  origins  began,  it  was  rather  on  the 
primary  idea  than  on  any  systematic  ar- 
rangement or  succession.  With  the  Ionic, 
which  was  the  earliest  school  of  philosophy, 
the  human  intelligence  was  mainly  busied 
in  contending  for  one  or  other  of  the  known 
material  elements,  as  entitled  to  the  hon- 
ors of  the  primordial  cause.  Nor  had  even 
the  Greeks  or  Romans  formulated  any 
scheme  in  any  degree  approaching  that  of 
Genesis  for  order  and  method,  so  late  as 
the  time  when  they  became  acquainted  with 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  through  their  trans- 
lation into  Greek.  The  opening  statement 
of  Ovid  in  the  "  Metamorphoses  "  is  re- 
markable ;  but  at  the  time  when  he  wrote, 
the  Book  of  Genesis  had  been  accessible  to 
educated  persons  in  what  was  then  the  chief 
literary  language  of  the  Romans.     There  is 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  47 

not,  then,  the  smallest  ground  for  treating 
the  Mosaic  cosmogony,  whether  in  the  way 
of  original  or  copy,  as  the  offspring  of  scien- 
tific inquiry. 

To  speak  of  it  as  guesswork  would  be  ir- 
rational. There  were  no  materials  for 
guessing.  There  was  no  purpose  to  be 
served  by  guessing.  For  a  record  of  the 
formation  of  the  world  we  find  no  purpose 
in  connection  with  the  ordinary  necessities 
or  conveniences  of  life.  Not  to  mention 
that  down  to  this  day  there  exists  no  cos- 
mogony which  can  be  called  scientific, 
though  there  are  theories  both  ingenious 
and  beautiful,  which  apparently  are  coming 
to  be  more  and  more  accepted  ;  these,  how- 
ever, being  of  an  origin  decidedly  late  even 
in  the  history  of  modern  physics. 

But,  further,  as  the  Tale  of  Creation  is 
not  poetry  nor  is  it  science,  so  neither,  ac- 
cording to  its  own  aspect  or  profession,  is  it 
theory  at  all.  The  method  here  pursued  is 
that  of  historical  recital.  The  person,  who 
composes  or  transmits  it,  seems  to  believe, 
and  to  intend  others  to  believe,  that  he  is 
dealing  with  matters  of  fact.  But  these  mat- 
ters of  fact  were,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
altogether  inaccessible  to  inquiry,  and  im- 
'  possible  to  attain  by  our  ordinary  mental 
faculties  of  perception  or  reflection,  inas- 
much as  they  date  before  the  creation  of  our 


48 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


race.  If  it  is,  as  it  surely  professes  to  be,  a 
serious  conveyance  of  truth,  it  can  only  be 
a  communication  from  the  Most  High  ;  a 
communication  to  man  and  for  the  use  of 
man,  therefore  in  a  form  adapted  to  his 
mind  and  to  his  use.  If,  thus  considered,  it 
is  true,  then  it  carries  stamped  upon  it  the 
proof  of  a  Divine  revelation ;  an  asser- 
tion which  cannot  commonly  be  sustained 
from  the  nature  of  the  contents  as  to  this  or 
that  minute  portion  of  Scripture  at  large. 

If,  when  thus  considered,  it  proves  not  to 
be  true,  we  then  have  to  consider  what  ac- 
count of  it  we  are  in  a  condition  to  give.  I 
cannot  say  that  to  me  this  appears  an  easy 
undertaking.  "  If,"  says  Professor  Dana 
with  much  reason,  "  it  be  true  that  the  nar- 
ration in  Genesis  has  no  support  in  natural 
science,  it  would  have  been  better  for  its  re- 
ligious character  that  all  the  verses  between 
the  first  and  those  on  the  creation  of  man 
had  been  omitted."  * 

But  the  truth,  or  trueness,  of  which  I 
speak,  is  truth  or  trueness  as  conveyed  to 
and  comprehended  by  the  mind  of  man ; 
and,  further,  by  the  mind  of  man  in  a  com- 
paratively untrained  and  infant  state.  I  can- 
not, indeed,  wholly  shut  out  from  view  the 
possibility    that    casual    imperfections    may 

*  "  Creation. "     By    Professor     Dana.      Oberlin,     O., 
1885  ;   p.  202. 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  aq 

have  crept  into  the  record.  Setting  aside^ 
however,  that  possibiHty,  let  us  consider  the 
conditions  of  the  case  as  they  are  exhibited 
to  us  by  reasonable  likelihood;  for,  if  the 
communication  were  divine,  we  maybe  cer- 
tain that  it  would  on  that  account  be  all  the 
more  strictly  governed  by  the  laws  of  the 
reasonable 

In  an  address  *  of  singular  ability  on 
"  The  Discord  and  Harmony  between  Sci- 
ence and  the  Bible,"  Dr.  Smith,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia,  has  drawn  some  very 
important  distmctions.  In  the  department 
of  natural  science,  and  in  the  department 
of  Scriptural  record,  the  question  lies  "be- 
tween the  present  interpretation  of  certain 
parts  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  the 
present  interpretation  of  certain  parts  of 
nature."  f  "  We  must  not  too  hastily  assume 
that  either  of  these  interpretations  is  abso- 
lute and  final."  "  The  science  of  one  epoch 
is  to  a  large  extent  a  help,  which  the  sci- 
ence of  the  next  uses  and  abandons."  Dr. 
Smith  points  out  as  an  example  that,  down 
to  the  early  part  of  the  present  century, 
Newton's  projectile  theory  of  light  seemed 
to  be  firmly  established,  but  that  it  has 
given  place  to  the  theory  of  undulation, 
"  which  has  now  for  fifty  years  reigned  in  its 

*  New  York  :  Hatcham.     The  Address  is    dated  July 
27.  1882.  t  /dtii.  p,  3. 

4 


CO  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

stead."  Hence,  he  observes,  we  should  not 
be  too  much  elated  by  the  discovery  of  har- 
monies, nor  should  we  receive  with  im- 
patience the  assertion  of  contradictions. 
Throughout,  it  is  probable,  and  not  demon- 
strative, evidence  with  which  we  are  deal- 
ing. There  should  always  be  a  certain  ele- 
ment of  reserve  in  our  judgments  on  par- 
ticulars ;  yet  probable  evidence  may  come 
indefinitely  near  to  demonstration ;  and, 
even  as,  while  falling  greatly  short  of  it,  it 
may  morally  bind  us  to  action,  so  may  it, 
on  precisely  the  same  principles,  bind  us  to 
belief.  What  we  have  to  do  is,  to  deal  with 
the  evidence  before  us  according  to  a  ra- 
tional appreciation  of  its  force.  It  may 
show  on  this  or  that  particular  question  the 
concord,  or  it  may  show  the  discord,  be- 
tween alleged  facts  of  nature  and  alleged 
interpretations  of  Scripture  ;  or  it  may  leave 
the  question  open,  for  want  of  sufficient  evi- 
dence, either  way,  on  which  to  ground  a 
conclusion. 

It  is  by  these  principles,  and  under  these 
limitations,  that  I  desire  to  see  the  question 
tried  in  the  terms  in  which  I  think  it  ought 
to  be  stated  ;  namely,  not  whether  the  reci- 
tals in  Genesis  at  each  and  every  point  have 
an  accurately  scientific  form,  but,  Whether 
the  statements  of  the  Creation  Story,  as  a 
whole,  appear  to  stand  in  such  a  relation  to 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


51 


the  facts  of  natural  science,  so  far  as  they 
have  been  ascertained,  as  to  warrant  or  re- 
quire our  concluding  that  the  statements 
have  proceeded,  in  a  manner  above  the  or- 
dinary manner,  from  the  Author  of  the  cre- 
ation itself* 

Those,  who  maintain  the  affirmative  of  \ 
this  proposition,  have  by  opponents  been 
termed  Reconcilers ;  and  it  is  convenient,  ' 
in  a  controverted  matter,  to  have  the  power 
of  reference  by  a  single  word  to  the  pro- 
posers of  any  given  opinion.  The  same 
rule  of  convenience  may  perhaps  justify  me 
in  designating  those  who  would  assert  tlje 
negative  by  the  name  of  Contradictionists. 
The  recorder  of  the  Creation  Story  in  Gen- 
esis I  may  designate  by  the  name  of  Moses 
himself,  or  the  Mosaist,  or  the  Mosaic 
writer.  This  would  not  be  reasonable,  if 
there  were  anything  extravagant  in  the  sup- 
position that  there  is  a  groundwork  of  fact 
for  the  tradition  which  treats  Moses  as  the 
author  of  the  Pentateuch.  But  such  a  sup- 
position, in  whole  or  in  part,  is  sustained  by 

*  See  the  attractive  paper  of  Professor  Pritchard,  in 
his  "  Occasional  Thoughts,"  Murray,  1889.  lie  says  on 
p.  261,  "I  cannot  accept  the  Proem  as  being,  or  even  as 
intended  to  be,  an  exact  and  scientific  account  of  Crea-  j 
tion,"  but  adds  that  it  "  contains  within  it  elements  of 
that  same  sort  of  st{perhu?>ian  aid  or  superintendence, 
•which  is  generally  understood  by  the  undefined  term  of 
inspiration.''^ 


52 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


many  and  strong  presumptions,  and  I  bear 
in  mind  that  Wellhausen,  in  giving  Bleek's- 
*'  Introduction  "  to  the  world,  stated  it  as  his- 
opinion  that  there  is  a  strong  Mosaic  ele- 
ment in  the  Pentateuch. 

It  does  not  seem  too  much  to  say,  that 
the  conveyance  of  scientific  instruction  as 
such  would  not,  under  the  circumstances  of 
the  case,  be  a  reasonable  object  for  the  Mo- 
saic writer  to  pursue ;  for  the  condition  of 
primitive  man,  as  it  is  portrayed  in  the  Book 
of  Genesis,  did  not  require,  perhaps  did  not 
admit  of,  scientific  instruction.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  could  not  but  be  a  reasonable  ob- 
ject then  to  convey  to  the  mind  of  man, 
such  as  he  actually  was,  a  moral  lesson 
drawn  from  and  founded  on  that  picture, 
that  assemblage  of  created  objects,  which 
was  before  his  eyes,  and  with  which  he  lived 
in  perpetual  contact.  We  have,  indeed,  to 
consider  both  what  lesson  it  would  be  most 
rational  to  convey,  and  by  what  method  it 
would  be  most  rational  to  stamp  it,  as  a 
living  lesson,  on  the  mind  by  which  it  was 
to  be. received.  And  the  question  finall}'  to 
be  decided  is  not,  whether  according  to  the 
present  state  of  knowledge  the  recital  in 
the  Book  of  Genesis  is  at  each  several  point 
either  precise  or  complete.  It  may  here  be 
general,  there  particular;  it  may  here  de- 
scribe a  continuous  process,  and  it  may  there 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


53 


make  large  omissions,  if  the  things  omitted 
were  either  absolutely  or  comparatively  im- 
material to  its  purpose  ;  it  may  be  careful 
of  the  actual  succession  in  time,  or  may 
deviate  from  it,  according  as  the  one  or  the 
other  best  subserved  the  general  and  prin- 
cipal aim  ;  so  that  the  true  question,  I  must 
repeat,  is  no  more  than  this  :  Do  the  prop- 
ositions of  the  Creation  Story  in  Genesis 
appear  to  stand  in  such  a  relation  to  the 
facts  of  natural  science,  so  far  as  they  are 
ascertained,  as  to  warrant  or  require  our  con- 
cluding that  these  propositions  proceeded, 
in  a  manner  above  the  ordinary  manner, 
from  the  Author  of  the  visible  creation? 

What,  then,  may  we  conceive  to  have 
been  the  moral  and  spiritual  lessons  which 
the  Mosaist  had  to  communicate,  and  nott. 
only  to  communicate  but  to  infuse  or  to  im- 
press ?  I  do  not  presume  to  attempt  an 
exhaustive  enumeration.  But  it  is  not  dif- 
ficult to  specify  a  variety  of  purposes  which 
the  narrative  was  calculated  to  promote, 
and  which  were  of  great  and  obvious  value 
for  the  education  of  manlcind. 

First,  it  was  fitted  to  teach  man  his 
proper  place  in  creation  in  relation  to  its 
several  orders,  and  thereby  to  prepare  at 
least  for  the  formation  of  the  idea  of  rela- 
tive duty,  as  between  man  and  other  created 
beings. 


54 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


Secondly,  it  presented  to  his  mind,  and  by- 
means  of  detail  made  him  know  and  feel 
what  was  the  beautiful  and  noble  home  that 
he  inhabited,  and  with  what  a  fatherly  and 
tender  care  Providence  had  prepared  it  for 
him  to  dwell  in.  There  was  a  picture  be- 
fore his  eyes.  That  picture  was  filled  with 
objects  of  nature,  animate  and  inanimate, 
I  say,  one  of  its  great  aims  may  have  been 
to  make  him  know  and  feel  by  means  of 
detail ;  for  wholesale  teaching,  teaching  in 
the  lump,  or  abstract  teaching,  mostly 
ineffective  even  now,  would  have  been 
wholly  futile  then.  It  was  needful  to  use 
the  simplest  phrases,  that  the  primitive  man 
might  receive  a  conception,  thoroughly 
faithful  in  broad  outline,  of  what  his  Maker 
Jiad  been  about  on  his  behalf  So  the 
Maker  condescends  to  partition  and  set  out 
His  work,  in  making  it  a  picture. 

But  He  proceeds  further  (and  this  is  the 
climax)  to  represent  Himself  as  resting 
after  it.  This  declaration  is  in  no  conflict 
with  any  scientific  record.  It,  however, 
implies  a  license  in  the  use  of  language, 
which  for  its  boldness  was  never  exceeded  in 
any  interpretation,  reconciling  or  other, 
whicii  has  been  applied  to  any  part  of  the 
text  of  Genesis.  But  it  draws  its  ample 
warrant  from  the  strong  educative  lesson 
that  is  to  be  learned  from  it ;  for  it  invests 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  55 

both  with  majesty  and  authority  the 
doctrine  of  a  day  of  rest,  which  was  of  the 
highest  importance  to  the  higher  and  inner 
hfe  of  man,  and  which  the  daily  cares  of 
his  existence  were  but  too  hkely,  as  ex- 
perience proved,  to  efface  from  his  recollec- 
tion. 

I  contend  then,  thirdly,  that  the  Creation 
Story  was  intended  to  have  a  special  bear- 
ing on  the  great  institution  of  the  day  of 
rest,  or  Sabbath,  by  exhibiting  it  in  the 
manner  of  an  object  lesson.  Paley,  indeed, 
has  said  that  God  blessed  the  seventh  day 
and  sanctified  it  (Gen.  ii.  3),  not  at  that  time 
but  for  that  reason.  He  is  a  writer  much 
to  be  respected,  for  many  reasons  ;  but,  in 
dealing  with  Holy  Scripture,  he  was  some- 
what apt  to  rest  upon  the  surface.  And 
now  we  have  learned  from  Assyrian  re- 
searches how  many  and  how  sharply  traced 
are  the  vestiges,  long  anterior  to  the  de- 
livery of  the  law,  of  some  early  institution 
or  command,  which  in  that  region  evidently 
had  given  a  special  sanctity  to  the  number 
seven,  and,  in  particular,  to  the  seventh  day. 

Man  then,  childlike  and  sinless,  had  to 
receive  a  lesson  which  was  capable  of 
gradual  development,  and  which  spoke  to 
something  like  the  following  effect.  It  has 
not  been  by  a  slight  or  single  effort  that 
the  nature,  in  which  you  are  moulded,  has 


56 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


been  lifted  to  its  present  level  ;  you  have 
reached  it  by  steps  and  degrees,  and  by  a 
plan  which,  stated  in  rough  outline,  may 
stir  your  faculties,  and  help  them  onwards 
to  the  truth  through  the  genial  action  of 
wonder,  delight,  and  gratitude.  This  was 
a  lesson,  as  it  seems  to  me,  perhaps  quite 
large  enough  for  the  primitive  man  on  the 
facts  of  creation,  and  one  which,  when  he 
had  heard  and  had  begun  to  digest  it,  might 
well  be  followed  by  a  rest  for  generations. 
And  it  further  seems  to  have  been  vital 
to  the  efficiency  of  this  lesson,  from  such  a 
point  of  view,  that  it  should  have  been 
sharply  broken  up  into  parts,  although 
there  might  be  in  nature  nothing,  at  any 
precise  points  of  breakage  or  transition,  to 
correspond  physically  with  those  divisions. 
They  would  become  intelligible,  significant,, 
and  useful  on  a  comparison  of  the  several 
processes  in  their  developed  state,  and  of 
the  vast  and  measureless  differences,  which 
in  that  state  they  severally  present  to  con- 
templation. As,  when  a  series  of  scenes 
are  now  made  to  move  along  before  the 
eye  of  a  spectator,  his  attention  is  not  fixed 
upon  the  joints  which  divide  them,  but  on 
the  scenes  themselves,  yet  the  joints  con- 
stitute a  framework  as  it  were  for  each,  and 
the  idea  of  each  is  made  more  distinct  and 
lively  than  it  would  have  been  if,  without 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  57 

any  note  of  division,  they  had  run  into  one 
another. 

There  is,  however,  another  purpose,  not 
yet   named,  and  more  remote   yet  perhaps 
even  more  vital,  which  appears  to  be  power- 
fully served   by  the   Creation   Story  of  the 
Bible.     In  the  prehistoric  time,  poh'theism 
was  very  largely  engendered    by    national 
distinctions,   rivalries,    and    amalgamations. 
By  a  ready  and  ingenious  compromise  each 
people    became    habituated   to   recognize  a 
deity  all-sufficient   for    its    own   wants,  but 
unconcerned  with  those  of  others.     In  the 
course   of  time   and   of  successive    change, 
many  of  these  deities  might  find  themselves 
inducted  into  one  and  the  same  thearchy,  or 
mythological  system,  such  as  that  of  Assyria 
or    of  Olympus,  and    sitting  there   side  by 
side.     When  this  happened,  the  polytheistic 
idea  had  reached  its  full  development.     But 
the  road  to  it  lay  principally  through  the 
erection   of   separate    thrones    each    for    its 
particular  national  organization,  and  through 
the   limits   thus   imposed    upon   the  earlier 
and    more  proper    conception   of  a  Divine 
Governor.     But  where  the  Creation  Story 
of  Genesis  was  received,  the  door  was  effect- 
ually   closed  for  all  thinking  men  against 
these    coequal    and    purely    national   gods. 
And    how  ?      Because    the    God    of   Israel 
was  the  Maker  of  the  world,  and  of  all  the 


58 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


nations  in  it.  It  was  His  creation  ;  and  its 
inhabitants,  whether  terrestrial  or  celestial, 
were  His  creatures.  Thus  the  narrative  in 
this  great  chapter  was  nothing  less  than  a 
charter  of  monotheism;  and  though,  in 
Israelitish  practice,  Baal  and  Ashtoreth 
might  find  their  way  into  popular  worship, 
and  spread  around  them  an  infinity  of  cor- 
ruption, the  lines  of  the  dogma  never  were 
obscured,  and  the  standard  of  authoritative 
reform  still  lifted  up  its  head  to  heaven 
from  the  first  day  of  idolatry  to  the  last, 
when,  in  the  Exile,  it  was  finally  sub- 
merged.* 

How  effectually  and  vividly  this  great 
idea  of  creation,  lost  or  dilapidated  else- 
where, was  impressed  upon  the  Hebrew 
mind  we  may  perceive  from  an  usage  in  the 
Psalms,  to  which  I  do  not  remember  a 
parallel  in  the  classical  literature.  The 
lower  orders  of  animated  creatures  are 
themselves  placed  in  a  living  relation  to  the 
Almighty.     "  The  lions  roaring  after  their 

prey,  do  seek  their  meat  from  God 

These  all  wait  upon  thee  ;  that  thou  mayest 
give  them  meat  in  due  season."  f  Nor  is 
the  boldness  of  Hebrew  devotion  arrested 
at  this  point.     It  extends  to  the  inanimate 

*  For  the  further  elucidation  of  the  subject  of  this  par- 
agraph see  the  Postscript  to  "  The  Creation  Story." 
j-  Ps.  civ.  21,  27. 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


59 


world.  "  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
God ;    and    the    firmament    showeth     His 

handiwork Their  sound  is  gone  out 

into  all  lands,  and  their  words  into  the  ends 

of  the  world The  sun  cometh  forth 

as  a  bridegroom  out  of  his  chamber,  and 
rejoiceth  as  a  giant  to  run  his  course."  * 
This  is  without  doubt  noble  poetry,  but  it 
is  also  nobler  than  any  poetry.  Mute  Na- 
ture is  instinct  and  vocal  with  worship,  and 
Creation  in  its  humblest  orders,  giving  a 
lesson  to  its  loftiest,  ministers  to  the  glory 
of  the  Most  High. 

In  order,  then,  to  approach  any  attempt 
at  comparison  between  the  record  of  Script- 
ure and  the  record  of  Natural  Science,  we 
must  consider  first,  as  far  as  reasonable 
presumption  carries  us,  what  is  the  proper 
object  of  the  scientist,  and  what  was  the 
proper  object  of  Moses,  or  of  the  Mosaic 
writer,  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 

The  object  of  the  scientist  is  simply  to 
state  the  facts  of  nature  in  the  cosmogony 
as  and  so  far  as  he  can  find  them.  The 
object  of  the  Mosaic  writer  is  broadly 
distinct;  it  is,  surely,  to  convey  moral  and 
spiritual  training.  This  training  was  to  be 
conveyed  to  human  beings  of  childlike  tem- 
perament and  of  unimproved  understanding. 
It  was  his  business  to  use  those  words  which 
*  Ps.  xix.  1-5. 


6o  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

would  best  convey  the  lessons  he  had  to 
teach ;  which  would  carry  most  initJi  into 
the  minds  of  those  he  taught.  This  ob- 
servation  has  not  the  honors  of  originality. 
"  He  emphasized,"  says  Rabbi  Grossmann,* 
in  his  interesting  tract  on  Maimonides,  "as 
very  proper  and  wise,  the  Talmudic  maxim, 
that  the  Torah  employs  such  diction  as  is 
likely  to  be  most  communicative." 

In  speaking  of  the  Mosaic  writer,  I  would, 
without  presumption,  seek  to  include  any 
divine  impulse  which  may  have  prompted 
him,  or  may  have  dictated  any  communica- 
tion from  God  to  man,  in  whatever  form  it 
may  have  been  conve}'ed.  With  this  aim 
in  view,  words  of  figure,  though  literally 
untrue,  might  carry  more  truth  home  than 
words  of  fact;  and  words  less  exact  will 
even  now  often  carry  more  truth  than 
words  superior  in  exactness.  The  truth  to 
be  conveyed  was,  indeed,  in  its  basis  phys- 
ical ;  but  it  was  to  serve  moral  and  spiritual 
ends,  and  accordingly  by  these  ends  the 
method  of  its  conveyance  behoved  to  be 
shaped  and  pictured. 

I  submit,  then,  that  the  days  of  creation 
are  neither  the  solar  days  of  twenty-four 
hours,  nor  are  they  the  geological  periods 
which  the  geologist  himself  is  compelled 
popularly,  and  in  a  manner  utterly  remote 
*  P.  12.  Putnam,  New  York  and  London,  1890. 


THE   CREATION  STORY.  gi 

from  precision,  to  describe  as  millions  upon 
millions  of  years.  To  use  such  language  as 
this  is  simply  to  tell  us,  that  we  have  no 
means  of  forming  a  determinate  idea  upon 
the  subject  of  the  geologic  periods.  I  set 
aside  both  these  interpretations,  as  I  do  not 
think  the  Mosaist  intended  to  convey  an 
idea  like  the  first,  which  was  false,  or  like 
the  second,  which  for  his  auditory  would 
have  been  barren  and  unmeaning.  Un- 
meaning, and  even  confusing  in  the  highest 
degree ;  for  large  statements  in  figures  are 
well  known  to  be  utterly  be}'ond  compre- 
hension for  man  at  an  early  intellectual 
stage;  and  I  have  myself,  I  think,  shown* 
that,  even  among  the  Achaian  or  Homeric 
Greeks,  the  limits  of  numerical  comprehen- 
sion were  extremely  narrow,  and  all  large 
numbers  were  used,  so  to  speak,  at  a  ven- 
ture. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  "  days  "  of  the 
Mosaist  are  more  properly  to  be  described 

as  CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  CREA- 
TION. That  is  to  say,  the  purpose  of  the 
writer,  in  speaking  of  the  days,  was  the 
same  as  the  purpose  of  the  historian  is, 
when  he  divides  his  Vvork  into  chapters. 
His  object  is  to  give  clear  and  sound  in- 
struction.    So  that  he   can  do  this,  and   in 

*"  Studies  on  Homer  and   the   Homeric   Age,"  vol. 
iii.,  Section  on  Number. 


62  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

order  that  he  may  do  it,  the  periods  of  time 
assigned  to  each  chapter  are  longer  or 
shorter,  according  as  the  one  or  the  other 
may  minister  to  better  comprehension  of 
his  subject  by  his  readers.  Further,  in 
point  of  chronology,  his  chapters  often 
overlap.  He  finds  it  needful,  always  keep- 
ing his  end  in  view,  to  pursue  some  narra- 
tive to  its  close,  and  then,  stepping  back- 
wards, to  take  up  some  other  series  of  facts, 
although  their  exordium  dated  at  a  period 
of  time  which  he  has  already  traversed. 
The  resources  of  the  literary  art,  aided  for 
the  last  four  centuries  by  printing,  enable 
the  modern  writer  to  confront  more  easily 
these  difficulties  of  arrangement,  and  so  to 
present  the  material  to  his  reader's  eye,  in 
text  or  margin,  as  to  place  the  texture  of 
his  chronology  in  harmony  with  the  texture 
of  the  action  he  has  to  relate.  The  Mosaist, 
in  his  endeavor  to  expound  the  ordinary 
development  of  the  visible  world,  had  no 
such  resources.  His  expedient  was  to  lay 
hold  on  that  which,  to  the  mind  of  his  time, 
was  the  best  example  of  complete  and  or- 
derly division.  Tliis  was  the  day ;  an  idea 
at  once  simple,  definite,  and  familiar.  As 
one  day  is  divided  from  another,  not  by  any 
change  visible  to  the  eye  at  a  given  moment, 
yet  effectually,  by  the  broad  chasm  of  the 
intervening  night,  so  were  the  stages  of  the 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


63 


creative  work  several  and  distinct,  even  if, 
like  the  lapse  of  time,  they  were  without 
breach  of  continuity.  Each  had  its  work, 
each  had  the  beginning  and  the  completion 
of  that  work,  even  as  the  day  is  begun  by 
its  morning,  and  completed  and  concluded 
by  its  evening. 

And  now  to  sum  up.  In  order  that  the 
narrative  might  be  intelligible,  it  was  useful 
to  subdivide  the  work.  This  could  most 
effectively  be  done  by  subdividing  it  into 
periods  of  time.  And  further,  it  was  well 
to  choose  that  particular  circumscription  or 
period  of  time  which  is  the  most  definite 
and  best  understood.  Of  all  these,  the  day 
is  clearly  the  best,  as  compared  with  the 
month  or  the  year — first,  because  of  its 
small  and  familiar  compass ;  and,  secondly, 
because  of  the  strong  and  marked  division 
which  separates  one  day  from  another. 

Hence,  we  may  reasonably  argue,  it  is 
that  not  here  only,  but  throughout  the 
Scripture,  and  even  down  to  the  present 
time  in  familiar  human  speech,  the  day  is 
figuratively  used  to  describe  periods  of  time, 
perfectly  undefined  as  such,  but  defined,  for 
practical  purposes,  by  the  lives  or  events  to 
which  reference  is  made.  And  if  it  be  said 
there  was  a  danger  of  its  being  misun- 
derstood in  this  particular  case,  the  answer 
is  that  such  danger  of  misapprehension  at- 


64  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

taches  in  various  degrees  to  all  use  of  fig- 
urative language  :  but  fio^urative  lanfjuaee 
is  still  used.  And  with  reason  because  the 
mischiefs  arising  from  such  danger  are  rare 
and  trivial,  in  comparison  with  the  force  and 
clearness  which  it  lends  to  truth  on  its  pas- 
sage, through  a  clouded  atmosphere  of  folly, 
indifference,  and  prejudice,  into  the  mind  of 
man.  In  this  particular  case,  the  danger 
and  inconvenience  are  at  their  minimum, 
the  benefit  at  its  zenith;  for  no  moral  mis- 
chief ensues  because  some  have  supposed 
the  days  of  the  creation  to  be  pure  solar 
days  of  twenty-four  hours,  while  the  bene- 
fit has  been  that  the  grand  conception  of 
orderly  development,  and  ascent  from  chaos 
to  man,  became  among  the  Hebrew  people 
an  universal  and  f;imiliar  truth,  of  which 
other  races  appear  to  have  lost  sight. 

I  may  now  part  from  the  important  and 
long-vexed  discussion  on  the  Mosiac  days. 
But  I  shall  further  examine  the  general 
question,  what  is  the  true  method,  what  the 
reasonable  spirit,  of  interpretation  to  be  ap- 
plied to  the  words  of  the  Creation  Story  ?  I 
will  state  frankly  my  opinion  that,  in  this  im- 
portant matter,  too  much  has  sometimes 
been  conceded  in  modern  days  to  the  Scien- 
tist and  to  the  Hebraist,  just  as  in  former 
days  too  much  was  allowed  to  the  unproved 
assumptions  of  the  Theologian.     Now  it  is 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


65 


evident  that  the  proper  ground  of  the  Scien- 
tist and  of  the  Hebraist  respectively  is  un- 
assailable, as  against  those  who  are  neither 
Scientists  nor  Hebraists.     On    the  meaning 
of  the  words  used   in   the  Creation  Story  I, 
as  an  igiior-anms,  have    only   to  accept  the 
statements  of  Hebrew  scholars,  with  grati- 
tude for  the  aid    received  ;  and  in  like  man- 
ner those  of    men    skilled    in    natural  sci- 
ence on  the   nature  and   succession  of  the 
orders  of  being,  and    the    transitions  from 
one  to  the  other.      Not  that  their  statements 
are  inerrable ;  but  they  constitute  the  best 
working  material   in   our  possession.     Still 
they  are  the  statements  of  men  whose  title 
to  speak  with  authority  is  confined  to  their 
special  province ;    and    if  we    allow    them 
without  protest  to  go  beyond  it,  and  still 
to    claim     that    authority    when    they    are 
what  is  called  at  school  "  out  of  bounds," 
we  are  much  to  blame,  and  may  suffer  for 
our  carelessness. 

I  will  now  endeavor  to  illustrate  and 
apply  what  has  been  said.  The  Hebraist 
says,  I  will  conduct  you  safely  (as  far  as 
the  case  allows)  to  the  meaning  of  the 
Hebrew  words.  And  the  Scientist  makes 
the  same  promise  in  regard  to  the  facts 
of  the  created  orders,  so  far  as  they  are 
exhibited  by  geological  investigations  into 
the  crust  of  the    earth.     At   first  sight  it 

5 


56  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

may  seem  as  if  these  two  authoritative  wit- 
nesses must  cover  the  whole  ground,  each 
setting  out  from  his  own  point  of  depart- 
ure, the  two  then  meeting  in  the  midst, 
and  leaving  no  unoccupied  space  between 
them.  But  my  contention  is  that  there  is 
a  ground  which  neither  of  them  is  entitled 
to  occupy  in  his  character  as  a  special- 
ist, and  on  which  he  has  no  warrant  for 
entering,  except  in  so  far  as  he  is  a  just 
observer  and  reasoner  in  a  much  wider 
field.  And  what  is  the  residuary  subject- 
matter  still  to  be  disposed  of?  Not  the 
meaning  of  the  Hebrew  words.  The  He- 
braist has  already  given  us  their  true  equiv- 
alents in  English.  We  now  learn,  for  ex- 
ample, that  the  "  whales  "  of  Gen.  i.  21  are 
not  whales  at  all,  but  that  they  are  aquatic 
monsters  *  or  great  creatures ;  while  we 
learn  from  the  biologist  that  the  whale  is 
a  late  mammal.  So  geology  has  acquainted 
us  what  are  the  relative  dates  of  the  water 
and  of  the  land  populations,  and  has  sup- 
plied much  information  as  to  reptiles,  birds, 

*  R.  v.,  the  great  sea-monsters.  "  It  seems,  on  the 
whole,  most  probable,  that  the  creatures  here  said  to  have 
been  created  were  serpents,  crocodiles,  and  other  huge 
saurians,  though  possibly  any  large  monsters  of  sea  or 
river  may  be  included"  (Bp.  Browne  in  /or.,  "  Speak- 
er's Commentary  ").  Possibly  a  word  meaning,  whether 
wholly  or  inter  alia,  crocodiles  would  convey  a  pretty 
clear  idea  to  the  mind  of  the  Hebrews,  after  their  sojourn 
in  Egypt. 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


^7 


and  beasts.  But  there  remains  a  great  un- 
covered ground,  and  a  great  unsolved 
question.  It  is  this.  Given  the  facts  as 
the  geologist  is  led  to  state  them,  given 
the  Hebrew  tongue  as  the  instrument 
through  which  the  relator  has  to  work, 
what  are  the  terms,  and  what  is  the  order 
and  adjustment  of  terms,  througli  which 
he  can  convey  most  of  truth  and  force, 
with  least  of  incumbrance  and  of  im- 
pediment, to  the  mind  of  man,  in  the  con- 
dition in  which  he  had  to  deal  with  it? 
Let  me  be  permitted  to  say  that  the  only 
specialism,  which  can  be  of  the  smallest 
value  here,  is  that  of  the  close  observer 
of  human  nature;  of  the  student  of  human 
action,  and  of  the  methods  which  Divine 
Providence  employs  in  the  conduct  of  its 
dealings  with  men.  Certainly  I  can  lay  no 
claim  to  be  heard  here  more  than  any  other 
person.  Yet  will  I  say,  that  any  man  whose 
labor  and  duty  for  several  scores  of  years 
has  included  as  their  central  point  the  study 
of  the  means  of  making  himself  intelligible 
to  the  mass  of  men,  is  pro  tanto  perhaps  in 
a  better  position  to  judge  what  would  be 
the  forms  and  methods  of  speech  proper  for 
the  Mosaic  writer  to  adopt,  than  the 
most  perfect  Hebraist  as  such,  or  the  most 
consummate  votary  of  natural  sciences  as 
such. 


68  THE   CREATION  STORY. 

I  will  now  endeavor  to  try  some  portions 

of  the  case  which  turn  upon  verbal  difficulty. 
At  the  outset  of  the  narrative  the  relator 
says,  that  "  the  earth  was  without  form  and 
void  "  (Gen.  i.  2)  and  that  "  the  spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters."  Nay, 
how  is  this,  says  the  Hebraist  ?  The  He- 
brew word  for  earth  means  earth,  and  the 
word  used  for  water  never  means  anything 
except  water.  But  according  to  the  beauti- 
ful theory,  which  has  during  the  last  half- 
century  won  so  largely  the  adhesibn  of  the 
scientific  world,  and  which  seems  to  be 
mainly  called  the  nebular  theory,  at  the 
commencement  of  the  process  which  Gene- 
sis describes,  and  in  its  early  stages,  there 
was  no  eartii,  and  there  were  no  waters.  Is 
the  relator  here  really  at  fault  ?  It  seems 
to  me  that  it  miglit  be  quite  as  easy  to  cavil 
at  the  phrase  nebular  theory,  though  it  be 
one  in  use  among  scientific  men,  as  it  is  to 
find  fault  with  these  words  of  Genesis.  For 
nothing  can  be  more  different  than  a 
nebula  or  cloud  from  a  vast  expanse  of 
incandescent  gaseous  matter.  In  truth,  we 
seem  to  have  for  our  point  of  departure  a 
time  when  all  the  elements  and  all  the 
forces  of  the  visible  universe  were  in  cha- 
otic mixture,  whereas  there  could  hardly  be 
any  sort  of  nebula  until  they  had  begun 
to  be  disengaged  from  one  another.     How 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  69 

then  are  we  to  judge  of  the  use  of  the  word 
"  earth  "  by  the  Mosaic  writer  ?  Is  it  not 
thus?  He  is  deahng  with  an  Adam,  or 
with  a  primitive  race  of  men.  who  have 
the  earth  under  their  eyes.  He  wants  to 
give  them  an  idea  of  its  coming  into  exist- 
ence. And  he  says  what  we  may  fairly 
paraphrase  in  this  way :  that  which  has 
now  become  earth,  and  was  then  becoming 
earth,  the  sohd  well-defined  form  }-ou  see, 
was  as  yet  without  form  and  void;  epithets 
which  I  am  told  might  be  improved  upon,, 
but  this  is  a  matter  by  the  way. 

So  again  with  respect  to  water.  The 
men  for  whom  the  relator  wrote  knew,  per- 
haps, of  no  fluid  except  water,  at  any  rate 
of  none  vast  and  practically  measureless  in 
volume.  What  was  the  idea  he  had  to 
convey?  It  was  not  the  special  and  dis- 
tinctive character  of  the  liquid  called 
water  ;  it  was  the  broad  separation  between 
solid  as  such,  familiar,  firm,  imniovable 
under  his  feet,  and  fluid  as  such,  movable 
and  fluctuating  at  large  in  space.  No 
doubt  the  idea  conveyed  by  the  word 
waters  is  an  imperfect  idea,  although  waters 
are  still  waters  at  times  when  they  may  be 
holding  vast  quantities  of  solid  in  solution. 
But  it  was  an  idea  easy,  clear,  and  familiar 
,  up  to  the  point  of  expressing  forcibly  the 
contrast  between  the  ancient  state  of  things. 


70 


THE   CREATION  STORY. 


with  its  weltering  waste,  and  tiie  recent  and 
defined  conditions  of  the  habitable  earth. 
Could  we  ask  of  the  relator  more  than  that 
he  should  employ,  among  the  words  at  his 
disposal,  that  which  would  come  nearest  to 
conveying  a  true  idea?  And  had  he  any 
word  so  good  as  water  for  his  purpose, 
though  it  was  but  an  approximation  to  the 
actual  fact?  Dr.  Driver  describes  the 
scene  as  that  of  a  "  surging  chaos."  An 
admirable  phrase,  I  make  no  doubt,  for  our 
modern  and  cultivated  minds;  but  a  phrase 
which,  in  my  judgment,  would  have  left  the 
pupils  of  the  Mosaic  writer  exactly  in  the 
condition  out  of  which  it  was  his  purpose 
to  bring  them ;  namely,  a  state  of  utter 
ignorance  and  total  darkness,  with  possibly 
a  little  ruffle  of  bewilderment  to  boot.  An- 
other description  claiming  high  authority 
is,  an  "  uncompounded,  homogeneous, 
gaseous  condition  "  of  matter;  to  which  the 
same  observation  will  apply.  Even  now, 
it  is  only  by  rude  and  bald  approximations 
that  the  practised  intellects  of  our  scientists 
can  bring  home  to  us  a  conception  of  the 
actual  process  by  which  chaos  passed  into 
kosmos,  or,  in  other  words,  confusion 
became  order,  medley  became  sequence, 
seeming  anarchy  became  majestic  law,  and 
horror  softened  into  beauty.  Before  cen- 
suring the  Mosaist,  who  had  to  deal  with 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


71 


grown  children,  let  the  adverse  critic  try 
his  hand  upon  some  little  child.  I  believe 
he  will  find  that  the  method  and  language 
of  this  relator  are  not  only  good,  but  super- 
latively good,  for  the  aim  he  had  in  view,  if 
once  for  all  we  get  rid  of  standards  of  in- 
terpretation other  than  the  genuine  and 
just  one,  which  tests  the  means  employed 
by  their  relation  to  the  end  contemplated 
and  sought. 

I  now  approach  a  larger  head  of  objec- 
tion, which  :s  usually  handled  by  the  Con- 
tradictionists  in  a  tone  of  confidence  rising 
into  the  paean  of  triumph.  But  let  me,  be- 
fore presuming  to  touch  on  objections  to 
particulars  of  the  Creation  Story,  guard 
myself  against  being  supposed  to  put  for- 
ward any  portion  of  what  follows  as  un- 
conditional assertion,  or  final  comment  on 
the  text.  The  general  situation  is  this. 
Objectors  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  dog- 
matically that  the  Great  Chapter  is  in  con- 
tradiction with  the  laws  and  facts  of  nature, 
and  that  attempts  to  reconcile  them  are 
futile  and  irrational.  It  is  thus  sought  to 
close  the  question.  My  aim  is  to  show 
that  the  question  is  not  closed,  and  that  the 
condemnation  pronounced  upon  the  Mosa- 
ist  is  premature.  For  this  purpose  I  offer 
conjecturally,  and  in  absolute  submission 
to  all  that  biology  and  geology,  or  other 


7^ 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


forms  of  science,  have  established,  repHes 
which  are  strictly  provisional ;  but  replies 
which  I  consider  that  the  Contradictionist 
ought,  together  with  other  and  weightier 
replies,  to  confute,  or  legitimately  to  con- 
sider, before  he  can  be  warranted  in  assert- 
ing the  contradiction.     But  I  proceed. 

How  hopeless,  is  the  cry,  to  reconcile 
Genesis  with  fact,  when,  as  a  fact,  the  sun 
is  the  source  of  light,  and  yet  in  Genesis, 
light  is  the  work  of  the  first  day,  and  vege- 
tation of  the  third,  while  sun,  moon,  and 
stars  appear  only  on  the  fourth !  Nay, 
worse  still.  Whereas  the  morning  and  the 
evening  depend  wholly  on  the  rotation  of 
the  earth  upon  its  own  axis  as  it  travels 
round  the  sun,  the  Mosaist  is  so  ignorant 
that  he  gives  us  not  days  only,  but  the 
mornings  and  the  evenings  of  days  before 
the  sun  is  created.  And  so  his  narration 
explodes,  not  by  blows  aimed  at  it  from 
without,  but  by  its  own  internal  self-contra- 
dictions. It  is  hissed,  like  a  blundering 
witness,  out  of  court.  Not  that  this  is  the 
opinion  of  astronomers  in  general.  Mr. 
Lockyer,*  for  example,  cites  with  appar- 
ent approval  a  passage  from  his  very  dis- 
tinguished predecessor  in  the  science,  Hal- 
ley,  who  says  that  the  diffused  lucid  me- 
dium he  had  found  disposed  of  the  diffi- 
*  Nineteenth  Century,  Nov.  1889,  p.  788. 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  73 

culty  which  some  have  moved  against  the 
description  Moses  gives  of  the  Creation,  al- 
leoring  that  hght  could  not  be  created  with- 
out  the  sun. 

The  first  triad  of   days,  says   Professor 
Dana,*  sets  forth  the  events  connected  with 
the   inorganic   history    of   the   earth.     The 
second  triad,   from   the  fourth  day  to  the 
sixth,  is   occupied  with   the    events   of  the 
organic   history,  from   the   creation   of  the 
first   animal   to   man.      He  finds  in  the  gen- 
eral structure   of   the  narrative  a  consider- 
able degree  of  elaboration,  an  arrangement 
full   of  art.     The   passage   from   ver.  14  to 
ver.  19  is,   in   one  sense,  a  qualification  of 
the  order  he  thinks  to  have  been  laid  down, 
inasmuch  as  the  heavenly  bodies  belong  to 
the  inorganic  division  of  the  history.     From 
another  point  of  view,  however,  this  arrange- 
ment contributes  in  a  marked  manner  to  the 
symmetry  of  the  narrative.     The  first  triad 
of  days  begins  with  the  first  and  gradual 
detachment    of    light    from    the    "  surging 
chaos";  the  second,  at  the  stage  in  which 
lieht  has  reached  its  final  distribution.     The 
central  mass  had  now  assumed  with  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  regularity  (for  according  to 
heliologists  the  process  does  not  even  yet 
appear  to  be  absolutely  completed)  its  spher- 
ical and  luminous  figure,  after  shedding  off 
*  Dana's  "  Creation,"  p.  207. 


74 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


from  itself  the  minor  masses,  each  to  find 
for  itself  its  own  orbit  of  rotation.  Or,  if 
we  are  to  assume  that  the  photosphere  or 
vapor-envelope  of  the  earth  itself  had  ob- 
structed the  vision  of  the  sun.  we  have, 
further,  to  assume  *  that  this  obstacle  had 
now  disappeared,  and  the  visibility  of  the 
sun  was  established.  So  that  light,  or  the 
light-power,  while  diffused,  ushers  in  the 
first  division  of  the  mighty  process ;  the 
same  light-power,  concentrated  by  the 
operation  of  the  rotatory  principle,  and  for 
practical  purposes  become  such  as  we  now 
know  it,  is  placed  at  the  head  of  the  second 
division,  the  division  that  deals  with  organic 
life. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  the  subject  of  light 
is  the  only  one  which  is  dealt  with  in  two 
separate  sections  of  the  narrative.  The 
gradual  severance,  or  disengagement,  of  the 
earth  from  its  present  vesture,  the  atmos- 
phere, and  of  the  solid  land  from  the  ocean, 
are  continuously  handled  in  verses  6-10. 
Each  of  the  processes  is  summed  up  into 
its  grand  result,  as  if  it  had  been  a  violent, 
convulsive,  instantaneous  act.  The  avoid- 
ance of  all  attempt  to  explain  the  process 
seems  to  me  only  a  proof  of  the  wisdom 
which  guided  the  formation  of  the  tale.  To 
the  primitive  man  it  would  have  become  a 
*  Guyot,  "  Creation,"  ch.  xi.  p.  92. 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  75 

barren  puzzle;  the  wood  must  have  been 
lost  in  the  trees.  As  it  now  stands,  mental 
confusion  is  avoided,  and  definite  ideas  are 
conveyed. 

There  seems,  however,  to  be  a  special 
reason  for  the  introduction  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  at  this  particular  place.  It  was  evi- 
dently needful  at  some  place  or  other  to 
give  a  specific  account  of  the  day,  or  com- 
partment of  time,  which  is  employed  to 
mark  the  severance  of  the  different  stages 
of  creation  from  each  other.  At  what  point 
of*  the  narrative  could  this  account  be  most 
properly  and  most  accurately  introduced? 
In  order  to  answer  this  question,  let  us  con- 
sider the  situation  rather  more  at  large. 

The  supposition  is,  that  we  set  out  with 
a  seething  mass  that  contains  all  the  ele- 
ments which  are  to  become  the  solids  and 
liquids,  the  moist  and  dry,  the  heat  and  the 
non-heat  or  cold,  the  light  and  the  non-light 
or  darkness,  that  so  largely  determine  the 
external  conditions  of  our  present  existence. 
By  degrees,  as,  according  to  the  rarity  or 
density  of  parts,  the  centripetal  or  the  cen- 
trifugal force  prevails,  the  huge  bulk  of  the 
sun  consolidates  itself  in  the  centre,  and 
aggregations  of  matter  (rings,  according  to 
Guyot,*  which  afterwards  become,  or  may 
become,  spheres),  are   detached   from  it  to 

*  "  Creation,"  pp,  67,  73. 


1^ 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


form  the  planets,  under  the  agency  of  the 
same  meclianical  forces ;  all  or  some  of 
them,  in  their  turn,  dismissing  from  their 
as  yet  ill-compacted  surfaces  other  subaltern 
masses  to  revolve  around  them  as  satellites, 
or  otherwise,  according  to  the  balance  of 
forces,  to  take  tlieir  course  in  space.  Mean- 
time, the  great  cooling  process,  which  is 
still  in  progress  at  this  day,  has  begun.  It 
proceeds  at  a  rate  determined  for  it  by  its 
particular  conditions,  among  which  mass 
and  motion  are  of  essential  consequence; 
for,  other  things  being  equal,  a  small  bo'dy 
will  cool  faster  and  a  large  body  will  cool 
slower ;  and  a  body  moving  more  rapidly 
through  space  of  a  lower  temperature  than 
its  own  will  cool  more  rapidly;  while  one 
which  is  stationary,  or  more  nearly  station- 
ary, or  which  diffuses  heat  less  rapidly  from 
its  surface  into  the  colder  space,  will  retain 
a  high  temperature  longer.  Owing  to  these 
perhaps  with  other  causes,  the  temperature 
of  the  earth-surface  has  been  adapted  to 
the  conditions  of  human  life,  and  of  the 
more  recent  animal  life,  for  a  very  longtime; 
to  those  of  the  earlier  animals,  and  of  vege- 
tation in  its  different  orders,  for  we  know 
not  how  much  longer ;  while  the  sun,  though 
gradually  losing  some  part  of  his  stock  of 
caloric,  still  remains  at  a  temperature  inordi- 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


77 


nately  high,  and  with  a  formation  compara- 
tively incomplete. 

Considering,  then,  what  are  the  relations 
between  the  conditions  of  heat  and  those 
of  moisture,  and  how  the  coatings  of  vapor, 
"the  swaddling-band  of  cloud,"*  might 
affect  the  visibility  of  bodies,  may  it  not  be 
rash  to  affirm  that  the  sun  is,  as  a  definite 
and  compact  body,  older  than  the  earth  ?  or 
that  it  is  so  old  ?  or  that  the  Mosaist  might 
not  properly  treat  the  visibility  of  the  sun, 
in  its  present  form,  as  best  marking  for  man 
the  practical  inception  of  his  existence?  or 
that,  with  heat,  light,  soil,  and  moisture 
ready  to  its  service,  primordial  vegetation 
might  not  exist  on  the  surface  of  a  planet 
like  the  earth,  before  the  sun  had  fully 
reached  his  matured  condition  of  sufficiently 
compact,  material,  and  well-defined  figure, 
and  of  visibility  to  the  eye  ?  May  not,  once 
for  all,  the  establishment  of  the  relation  of 
visibility  between  earth  and  sun  be  the  most 
suitable  point  for  the  relator  in  Genesis  to- 
bring  the  two  into  connection?  And  here 
again  I  would  remind  the  reader  that  the 
Mosaic  days  may  be  chapters  in  a  history ;; 
and  that,  not  in  despite  of  the  law  of  series,, 
but  with  a  view  to  its  best  practicable  applica- 
tion, the  chapters  of  a  history  may  overlap.. 

The  priority  of  Earth  to  Sun,  as  given  in 

*  Dana,  p.  210. 


78 


THE   CREATION  STORY. 


the  narrative,  carries  us  so  far  as  this,  that 
vegetative  work  (of  what  kind  I  shall  pres- 
ently inquire)  is  stated  to  be  proceeding  on 
the  surface  of  the  earth  before  any  relation 
of  earth  with  sun  is  declared.  It  is  then 
declared  in  the  terms,  "and  God  made  two 
great  lights"  (ver.  i6).  Now  the  making o^ 
earth  is  nowhere  declared,  but  only  im- 
plied. And  who  shall  say  that  there  is 
some  one  exact  point  of  time  in  the  con- 
tinuous process  which  (according  to  the 
nebular  theory)  reaches  from  the  first  begin- 
ning of  rotation  down  to  the  present  condi- 
tion of  the  solar  system,  to  which  point, 
and  to  which  alone,  the  term  making  must 
belong?  But,  unless  there  be  such  a  point, 
it  seems  verv^  difficult  to  convict  the  Mo- 
saic  writer  of  error  in  the  choice  he  has 
made  of  an  opportunity  for  introducing  the 
heavenly  bodies  into  his  narrative. 

I  suppose  that  no  apology  is  needed  for 
his  mentioning  the  moon  and  the  stars  as 
accessories  in  the  train  of  the  sun,  and  com- 
bining them  all  without  note  of  time, 
although  their  several  "  makings  "  may  have 
proceeded  at  different  speeds.  But  here 
again  we  find  exhibited  that  principle  of 
relativity  to  man  and  his  uses,  by  which  the 
writer  in  Genesis  appears  so  wisely  to  steer 
his  course  throughout.  We  are  told  of 
"two  great  lights"  (ver.  i6);  and  one  of 


THE    CREATION  STORY. 


79 


them  is  the  moon.  The  formation  of  the 
stars  is  interjected  soon  after,  as  if  compara- 
tively insignificant.  But  the  planet-stars 
individually  are  in  themselves  far  greater 
and  more  significant  than  the  moon,  which 
is  denominated  a  great  light.  In  what  sense 
is  the  moon  a  great  light  ?  Only  in  virtue 
of  its  relation  to  us.  For  its  magnitude,  a.s. 
it  is  represented  on  the  human  retina,  is  far 
larger  than  that  of  the  stars,  approaching 
that  of  the  sun  ;  and  its  office  also  makes  it 
the  queen  of  the  nocturnal  heaven.  So, 
then,  the  general  upshot  is,  that  the  mention 
of  the  sun  is  introduced  at  that  point  in  the 
cosmogonic  process  when,  from  the  condi- 
tion of  our  form  and  atmosphere,  or  of  his, 
or  of  both,  he  had  become  so  definite  and 
visible  as  to  be  finally  efficient  for  his  office 
of  dividing  day  from  day,  and  year  from 
year  ;  that  the  planets,  being  of  an  altogether 
secondary  importance  to  us,  simply  appear 
as  his  attendant  company  ;  and  that  to  the 
moon,  a  body  in  itself  comparatively  insig- 
nificant, is  awarded  a  rather  conspicuous 
place,  which,  if  objectively  considered,  is 
out  of  proportion,  but  which  at  once  falls 
into  line  when  we  acknowledge  relativity  as 
the  basis  of  the  narrative,  by  reason  of  the 
great  importance  of  the  functions,  which 
this  satellite  discharges  on  behalf  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  earth. 


8o  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

Next,  it  is  alleged  that  we  have  days  with 
an  evening  and  a  morning  before  we  have  a 
sun  to  supply  a  measure  of  time  for  them. 
Doubtless  there  could  be  no  approach  to 
anything  like  an  evening  and  a  morning,  so 
long  as  light  was  uniformly  diffused.  But 
under  the  nebular  theory,  the  work  of  the 
first  day  implies  an  initial  concentration  of 
hght ;  and,  from  the  time  when  light  began 
to  be  thus  powerfully  concentrated,  would 
there  not  be  an  evening  and  a  morning, 
though  imperfect,  for  any  revolving  solid 
of  the  system,  according  as  it  might  be 
turned  towards,  or  from,  the  centre  of  the 
highest  luminosity? 

But  we  have  not  yet  emerged  from  the 
net  of  the  Contradictionist,  who  lays  hold 
on  the  vegetation  verses  fii,  12)  to  im- 
peach the  credit  of  the  Creation  Story. 
The  objection  here  becomes  twofold.  First, 
"we  have  vegetation  anterior  to  the  sun;  and 
secondly,  this  is  not  merely  an  aquatic 
vegetation  for  the  support  of  aquatic  life, 
nor  merely  a  rude  and  primordial  vegeta- 
tion, such  as  that  of  and  before  the  coal- 
measures,  but  a  vegetation  complete  and 
absolute,  including  fern-grass,  then  the  herb 
yielding  seed,  and  lastly  the  fruit-tree,  yield- 
ing fruit  after  its  kind,  whose  seed  is  in 
itself.  Here  is  the  food  of  mammals  and 
even  of  man  provided,  when  neither  of  them 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  gl 

was  created,  or  was  even  about  to  exist 
until  after  many  a  long  antecedent  stage  of 
lower  life  had  found  its  way  into  creation 
and  undertaken  its  office  there. 

First,  as    regards   vegetation    before  the 
sun's  performance  of  his  present  function  in 
the    heavens    is    announced.     There    were 
light   and   heat,  atmosphere  with   its    con- 
ditions of  moist  and  dry,  soil  prepared  to  do 
its  work  in  nutrition.     Can  there  be  ground 
for  sayinCT  that,  with  such  provision   made, 
vegetation  could  not,  would  not,  take  place? 
Let  us,  for  argument's  sake,  suppose  that 
the  sun  could   now  recede  into  an  earlier 
condition,  could  go  back  by  some  few  stages 
of  that  process  through  which  he  became 
our  sun  ;  his  material  less  compact,  his  form 
less  defined,  his  rays  more  intercepted  by 
the  "  swaddling-band  "  of  cloud  and  vapor. 
Vegetation  might  be  modified  in  character, 
but  must  it  therefore  cease?     May  we  not 
say  that  a  far  more  violent  paradox  would 
have  been  hazarded,  and  a  sounder  objec- 
tion would  have  lain,  had  the  Mosaic  writer 
failed   to  present  to   us  at  least   aa    initial 
vegetation  before  the  era  at  which  the  sun 
had  obtained  his  present  degree  of  defimte- 
ness  in  spherical  form,  and  the  conditions 
for  the  transmission  of  his  rays  to  us  had 
reached  substantially  their  present  state? 
But,  then,  it  is  fairly    observed   that  the 
6 


82  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

vegetation  as  described  is  not  preparatory 
and  initial,  but  full-formed  ;  also,  that  any 
tracingr  of  vegetation  anterior  to  animal 
life  in  the  strata  is  ambiguous  and  obscure. 
In  the  age  of  Protozoa,  the  earliest  living 
creatures,  the  indications  of  plants  are  not 
determinable,  according  to  the  high  author- 
ity of  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson.  It  is  observed  by 
Canon  Driver  "  that  the  proof  from  science 
of  the  existence  of  plants  before  animals  is 
inferential  and  cl  priori.'"  *  Guyot,.however, 
holds  a  directly  contrary  opinion,  and  says 
the  present  remains  indicate  a  large  pres- 
ence of  infusorial  protophytes  in  the  early 
seas.f  But  suppose  the  point  to  be  con- 
ceded. Undoubtedly,  all  ci  priori  assump- 
tions ought  in  inquiries  of  this  kind  to  be 
watched  with  the  utmost  vigilance  and  jeal- 
ousy. Still  there  are  limits,  beyond  which 
vigilance  and  jealousy  cannot  push  their 
claims.  Is  there  anything  strange  in  the 
supposition  that  the  comparatively  delicate 
composition  of  the  first  vegetable  structures 
should  have  given  way,  and  become  indis- 
cernible to  us,  amidst  the  sbock  and  pres- 
sure of  firmer  and  more  durable  material? 
The  flesh  of  the  mammoth  has,  indeed, 
been   preserved  to  us,  and  eaten  by  dogs 

*  "  The   Cosmogony  of  Genesis,"  in    77^1?  Expositor ^ 
January  1886,  p.  29. 
t  "  Creation,"  x.  p.  90. 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  83 

in  our    own    time,    though    coming    down 
from    ages    which    we    have    no  means   of 
measuring;    but  then    it    was  not  exposed 
to    the     same    pressure,    and    it    subsisted 
under    conditions    of     temperature     which 
■were    adequately   antiseptic.     But    has    all 
palaeozoic     life    been     ascertained    by    its 
flesh,  or  do  we  not  owe  our  knowledge  of 
many  among  the  earlier  forms  of  animated 
life  altogether  to  their  osseous  structures? 
And,  in  cases  where  only  bone  remains,  is 
it  an  extravagant  use  of  argument  a  priori 
to   hold   that  there   must   have  been  flesh 
also  ?     And,  if  flesh,  why  should  not  vege- 
table matter  have  subsisted,  and  have  dis- 
appeared ?    Canon  Driver,  indeed,  observes  * 
that  from  a  very  early  date  animals  preyed 
upon  animals.     Still  the  first  animal  could 
not    prey  upon   himself;    there  must  have 
been  vegetable  pabuhnn,  out   of  which  an 
animal  body  was  first  developed.     "  Before 
the  beasts,"  says  Sir  George  Stokes,  "  came 
the  plants,  plants   which   are   necessary  for 

their  sustenance. "f 

Next,  with  respect  to  the  objection  that 
the  vegetation  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
verses  is  a  perfected  vegetation,  and  that 
there  existed  no  such  vegetation  before 
animal  life  began.      But  why  are  we  to  sup- 

*  The  Expositor.  January,  1886,  p.  29. 
f  Letter  to  Mr.  Elflein,  Aug.  14.  1883. 


84  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

pose  that  the  Mosaic  writer  intended  to  say 
that  such  a  vegetation  did  exist  before 
animal  hfe  began  ?  For  no  other  reason 
than  this :  having  mentioned  the  first  intro- 
duction of  vegetable  life,  he  carries  it  on, 
without  breaking  his  narrative,  to  its  com- 
pletion. In  so  proceeding,  he  does  ex- 
actly what  the  historian  does  when,  for  the 
sake  of  clearer  comprehension,  he  brings 
one  series  of  events  from  its  inception  to 
its  close,  although  in  order  of  time  the  be- 
ginning only,  and  not  the  completion,  be- 
longs to  the  epoch  at  which  he  introduces 
it.  What  I  have  called  the  rule  of  relativ- 
ity, the  intention,  namely,  to  be  intelligible 
to  man,  seems  to  show  the  reason  of  his 
arrangement.  If  his  meaning  was,  "  The 
beautiful  order  of  trees,  plants,  and  grasses 
which  you  see  around  you  had  its  first  be- 
ginnings in  the  era  when  living  creatures 
were  about  to  commence  their  movements 
in  the  waters  and  on  the  earth,  and  all  this 
was  part  of  the  fatherly  work  of  God  on  your 
behalf" — such  meaning  was  surely  well  ex- 
pressed, expressed  after  a  sound  and  work- 
manlike fashion,  in  the  text  of  the  Creation 
Story  as  it  stands. 

I  will  next  notice  the  objection  that  the 
Mosaic  writer  takes  (according  to  the  re- 
ceived version)  no  notice  of  the  great  age 
of  reptiles,  but  proceeds  at  once  from  the 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  85 

creation  of  marine  animals  (ver.  20)  to  the 
fowl  that  may  "  fly  above  the  earth  in  the 
open  firmament  of  heaven."  He  thus 
passes  over  without  notice  the  amphibians, 
the  reptiles  proper,  the  insects,  and  the 
marsupial  or  early  mammals,  on  his  way  to 
the  birds.  It  is  added  that  he  brackets  the 
birds  with  the  fishes,  and  thus  makes  them 
of  the  same  date. 

It  is  requisite  here  to  observe,  with  re- 
spect to  birds,  that  Professor  Dana  *  writes 
of  the  narrative  in  Genesis  as  follows  : 
speaking  of  the  relation  between  the  Mo- 
saic narrative  and  the  ascertained  facts  of 
science,  he  uses  these  words  :  "  The  accord- 
ance is  exact  with  the  succession  made  out 
for  the  earliest  species  of  these  grand  di- 
visions, if  we  except  the  division  of  birds, 
about  which  there  is  doubt." 

Owen,  however,  in  his  "  Palaeontology,"  f 
places  animal  life  in  six  classes,  according 
to  the  following  order,  namely — 

1.  Invertebrates.  4.  Birds. 

2.  Ushes.  5.   Mammals. 

3.  Reptiles.  6.   Man. 

In  the  more  recent  "  Manual  "  of  Profes- 


*  "Creation,"  as  before,  p.  215. 
+  Second  edition,  1861,  p.  5. 


86  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

sor  Prestvvich  (1886)  the  order  of  seniority 
stands  as  follows  : — 

1.  Cryptogamous  Plants.  4.  Mammals. 

2.  Fishes.  5.  Man. 

3.  Birds. 

In  the  "  Manual  "  *  of  Etheridge  we  are 
supplied  with  the  following  series,  after 
fishes:  i.  Fossil  reptiles.  2.  Ornithosauria ; 
''''flying  aiiiuials,  ivhicli  combine d  the  charac- 
ter of  reptiles  with  those  of  birds.'"  3.  The 
first  birds  of  the  secondary  rocks,  with 
"  feathers  in  all  respects  similar  to  those  of 
existing  birds."     4.   Mammals. 

It  thus  appears  that  much  turns  on  the 
definition  of  a  bird,  and  that,  in  this  point 
as  in  others,  it  is  hard,  on  the  evidence 
thus  presented,  seriously  to  impeach  the 
character  of  the  Creation  Story.  Largely 
viewed,  the  place  of  birds,  as  an  order  in 
creation,  is  given  us  by  our  scientific  teach- 
ers, or,  as  I  have  shown,  by  many  and  rec- 
ognized authorities  among  them,  between 
fishes  and  the  class  of  mammals.  It  is  a 
gratuitous  assumption  that  the  Mosaist  in- 
tends to  assign  to  them  the  same  date  as 
fishes  ;  he  places  them  in  the  same  day,  but 
then  we  have  to  bear  in  mind  that  he  more 
than  once  gives  several  actions  to  the  same 

*  Phillips's    "  Manual    of   Geology,"  part   ii.,   by   R. 
Etheridge,  F.  R.  S.,  chap.  xxv.  pp.  511-520. 


THE   CREATION  STORY. 


87 


day.  He  sets  them  after  the  fishes  ;  and  the 
fairer  construction  surely  is,  not  that  they 
were  contemporaneous,  but  that  they  were 
subsequent.  He  forbears,  it  is  true,  to 
notice  amphibious  reptiles,  insects,  and 
marsupials.  And  why  ?  All  these,  va- 
riously important  in  themselves,  fill  no 
large  place,  some  of  them  no  place  at  all, 
in  the  view  and  in  the  concerns  of  primitiv^e 
man ;  and,  having  man  for  his  object,  he 
forbears,  on  his  guiding  principle  of  rela- 
tivity, to  incumber  his  narrative  with  them. 

If  it  be  true  that  the  demarcation  of  the 
order  of  birds  in  creation  is  less  sharply 
drawn  than  that  (for  example)  of  fishes  and 
of  mammals,  may  we  not  be  permitted  to 
trace  a  singular  propriety  in  the  diminution, 
so  to  speak,  of  emphasis  with  which  the 
Mosaist  gives  to  their  introduction  a  more 
qualified  distinctness  of  outline,  by  simply 
subjoining  them  (ver.  20)  to  the  aquatic 
creation. 

I  have  now  made  bold  to  touch  on 
the  principal  objections  popularly  known. 
They  run  into  details  which  it  has  not  been 
possible  fully  to  notice,  but  which  seem  to 
be  without  force,  except  such  as  they  de- 
rive from  the  illegitimate  process  of  hold- 
ing down  the  Mosaic  writer  in  his  narra- 
tion, so  short,  so  simple,  so  sublime,  by 
.restraints    which    the    ordinary    historian, 


88  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

though  he  has  plenty  of  auxiUary  expedi- 
ents, and  is  under  no  restraint  of  space^ 
finds  himself  obliged  to  shake  off  if  he 
wishes  to  be  understood.  On  the  intro- 
duction of  the  great  or  recent  mammals, 
and  of  man,  as  the  objector  is  silent,  I  re- 
main silent  also. 

It  would  be  uncandid,  however,  not  to 
notice  the  "  creeping  thing"  of  verses  24,  25, 
and  26.  In  these  verses  the  "creeping 
thing"  is  distinguished  from  cattle,  and  un- 
doubtedly  appears  upon  the  scene  as  if  it 
were  a  formation  wholly  new.  If  the 
Mosaist  really  intended  to  convey  that  this 
was  the  first  appearance  of  the  creeping 
thing  in  creation,  there  is  I  suppose  no 
doubt  that  he  is  at  war  with  the  firmly 
established  witness  of  natural  science. 
Guyot,  indeed,  says*  that  these  creeping 
things  are  not  reptiles,  but  are  the  smaller 
mammals,  rats,  mice,  and  the  like.  If,  how- 
ever, the  common  rendering  be  maintained, 
it  may  be  just  worth  while  to  suggest  a 
possible  explanation.  It  is  as  follows. 
These  creeping  things  were  a  very  minor 
fact  in  the  scheme  of  creation  ;  so  that  the 
purpose  of  the  relator,  and  the  comparative 
importance  of  the  facts  may  here,  as  else- 
where, govern  his  mode  of  handling  them. 
It  is  fit  to  be  observed  that  he  never  men- 
*"  Creation,"  p.  120. 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  89 

tions  insects  at  all,  as  if  they  were  too  insig- 
nificant to  find  a  place   among  the   larger 
items  of  his  account;    as   if  he    advisedly 
selected  his  materials,  and  sifted  off  the  less 
important   among  them.     And   there  does 
seem  to  be  some  license  or  looseness  in  his 
method  of  treating  these   creeping  things; 
for  while  he  severs  them  from  fish,  fowl,  and 
beast,  in  the  verses  I  have  named,  and  again 
in  verse  30  from  fowl  and  from  beast,  yet  in 
verse  28,  when  the  great  charter  of  dominion 
is    granted    to   man,   he  sums   up    in   three 
divisions   only,    and    makes   man   the    lord 
*'  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl 
of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that 
moveth  upon  the  earth."      Reptiles  appear 
to  have  passed  out  of  his  view,  either  wholly, 
or  so  far  as  not  to  deserve  separate  mention, 
and  it  may  seem  likely  that  he  did  not  think 
their  importance  such  as  to  call    for  a   par- 
ticular and  defined  place,  and,  while  accord- 
ing   to    them    incidental  mention,  did    not 
mean  to  give  them  such  a  place,  in  the  chron- 
ological order  of  creation.    Let  the  Contra- 
dictionist  make  the  most  he  can  out  of  this 
secondary  matter:  it  will  not  greatly  avail. 
If,  on  the  whole,  such  be  a  fair  statement 
of  arguments   and   results,   we   may  justly 
render  our  thanks  to  Dana,  Guyot,*  Daw- 

*  In  the  preface  to  Guyot's  "  Creation  "  will  be  found 
some  account  of  the  recent  literature  of  this  subject.     I 


go 


THE   CREATION  STORY. 


son,  Stokes,  and  other  scientific  authorities, 
who  seem  to  find  no  cause  for  supporting 
the  broad  theory  of  contradiction.  I  am 
well  aware  of  my  inability  to  add  an  atom 
of  weight  to  their  judgments.  Yet  I  have 
ventured  to  attempt  applying  to  this  great 
case  what  I  hold  to  be  the  just  laws  of  a 
narrative  intended  to  instruct  and  to  per- 
suade, and  thus  finding  a  key  to  the  true 
construction  of  the  Chapter.  For  myself, 
I  cannot  but  at  present  remain  before  and 
above  all  things  impressed  with  the  profound 
and  marvellous  wisdom,  that  has  guided 
the  human  instrument,  whether  it  were  pen 
or  tongue,  which  was  first  commissioned 
from  on  high,  to  hand  onwards  for  our  ad- 
miration and  instruction  this  wonderful,  this 
unparalleled  relation.  If  I  am  a  "  recon- 
ciler," I  shall  not  call  myself  a  mere  apolo- 
gist, for  I  aim  at  a  positive,  not  merely  a 
defensive  result,  and  claim  that  my  reader 
should  feel  how  true  it  is  that  in  this  brief 
relation  he  possesses  an  inestimable  treasure. 
And  I  submit  to  those,  who  vc\2.y  have 
closely  followed  my  remarks,  that  my  words 

must  also  mention  a  valuable  pamphlet  entitled  "  The 
Higher  Criticism,"  by  Mr.  Rust,  Rector  of  VVesterfield, 
Suffolk.  It  sets  forth  the  scope  of  the  negative  criticism 
at  large,  and  recommends  (p.  30)  to  "  have  patience  for 
a  while,  and  wait  to  see  the  issue."  Similar  advice  has, 
I  understand,  been  given  in  the  recent  Charge  of  the 
learned  Bishop  of  Oxford. 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  ^j 

were  not  wholly  idle  words,  when,  without 
presuming  to  lay  down  any  universal  and 
inflexible  proposition,  and  without  question- 
ing any  single  contention  of  persons  specially 
qualified,  I  said  that  the  true  question  was 
whether  the  words  of  the  Mosaic  writer,  in 
his  opening  chapter,  taken  as  a  whole,  do 
not  stand,  according  to  our  present  knowl- 
edge, in  such  a  relation  to  the  facts  of  nature 
as  to  warrant  and  require,  thus  far,  the  con- 
clusion that  theOrdainer  of  Nature,  and  the 
Giver  or  Guide  of  the  Creation  Story,  are 
One  and  the  Same. 


Postscript  to  the  Creation  Story. 

[Mankind  have  travelled  not  by  one  but 
by  several  roads  into  polytheism.  It  took 
a  thousand  years  from  the  institution  of  the 
Mosaic  legislation  to  place  the  chosen  peo- 
ple in  a  state  of  security  from  this  insidious 
mischief.  But  all  along  a  powerful  appara- 
tus of  means  had  been  at  work,  which  was 
strengthened  from  time  to  time  as  Divine 
Providence  saw  fit.  The  foundation,  how- 
ever, had  been  laid  in  the  Creation  Story. 
It  was  impossible  for  those  who  received  it 
either  to  travel  or  to  glide  into  polytheism 
by  either  of  the  widest  roads  then  open,  the 


Q2  THE    CREATION  STORY. 

system  of  Nature-worship,  and  the  deifica- 
tion of  heroes.     No   one  could   make  the 
Sun  his  God,  who  really  believed  that  there 
was  a  God  who  created    the    Sun.     Even 
more  perhaps  was   it   needful  that  the  line 
should  be  clearly  and  sharply  drawn  between 
Deity  and  humanity,  and  that  a  barrier  not 
capable  of  being  surmounted  should  exclude 
kings  and  heroes  from  deification.     In  the 
Homeric  or  Olympian  system,  the  worship 
of  inanimate    nature    was    studiously   shut 
out;  but  the  beginnings  of  deification  are 
visible  in  the  case  of  Heracles,*  whose  very 
self  (auT-os)  sits  at  the  banquets  of  the  Im- 
mortals, and  of  the   twin   brothers.  Castor 
and  Pollux,  who  live  and  die  on  alternate 
days,    and    who,    when    they    live,    receive 
honors   like  the   gods.     In  the    height    of 
their  civilization  the  Romans  set  up  their 
living  Emperors  as  divinities.     But  neither 
they  nor  the  Greeks  believed  in  the  creation 
of  man  by  the  Almighty.     The  old  cosmog- 
onies   of  the    heathen    placed    matter    and 
other  impersonal  entities   in  a  position   of 
priority  to    their    gods,    who    merely   take 
their  turn  to  come   upon  the   scene.     Only 
(I  believe)  in  the  Hebrew  story  is  the  Deity 
anterior,  without  which  condition  He  cannot 
be  supreme. 

Besides   being  anterior,  He  is  separate. 
*  Od.  xi.  302-5. 


THE    CREATION  STORY.  q^ 

Did  we  find  in  the  pages  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment a  story  of  deification,  we  should  at 
once  know  it  to  be  spurious,  because  in 
contradiction,  alike  as  to  letter  and  as  to 
spirit,  of  the  entire  context. 

It  is,  I  hope,  not  presumptuous  to  proceed 
a  step  further  and  to  say  that  this  broad  and 
effectual  severance  was  necessary  not  only 
for  the  Old  dispensation,  but  for  the  New : 
not  only  for  the  exclusion  of  idolatry  in  all 
its  forms,  but  for  the  establishment  of  the 
Incarnation.  A  marriage  would  be  no 
marriage,  unless  the  individuality  of  the 
parties  to  it  were  determinate  and  inefface- 
able. •  The  Christian  dogma  of  the  two 
natures  in  one  Person  would  be  in  no  sense 
distinctive,  if  it  had  been  habitual  in  the 
preparatory  dispensation,  as  in  some  of  the 
religions  outside  it,  for  man  properly  so- 
called  to  pass  into  proper  deity.  Reunion 
was  to  be  effected  between  the  Almighty 
and  His  prime  earthly  creature  by  the  bridge 
to  be  constructed  over  that  flood,  the  flood 
of  sin,  which  parted  them  ;  and,  to  sustain 
that  bridge,  it  was  needful  that  the  natures 
to  be  brought  into  union  should  stand  apart 
like  piers  perfectly  defined,  each  on  its  own 
separate  and  solid  foundation.  And  the 
firm  foundations  of  those  piers  were  laid,  to 
endure  tiiroughout  all  time,  by  the  great 
Creation  Story.] 


The  Office  and  Work  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  Outline. 


The  Office  and  Work  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  Outline. 

WE  may  often  hear  it  said,  that  the  Old 
Testament  is  an  introduction  to  the 
New.      Much    more    is   contained    in    these 
words,  than  an  irreflective  recital  may  per- 
mit us  to  grasp.     Yet  they  do  not  seem  to 
cover  the  whole  ground.      It  seems  neces- 
sary to  glance  first  at  the  conjoint  function 
of  the  two  Testaments,  in  order  to  measure 
fully  the  exalted  mission  of  the  earlier.    As 
the   heavens  cover  the  earth  from   east  to 
west,  so  the  Scripture  covers  and  compre- 
hends the  whole  field  of  the  destiny  of  man. 
The  whole  field  is  possessed  by   its   moral 
and  potential  energy,  as  a  provision  endur- 
ing to  the  end  of  time.     But  it  is  marvellous 
to  consider   how  large  a  portion  of  it  lies 
directly  within  the  domain  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament.    The   interval   to  be  bridged  over 
between    the    prophet     Malachi     and    the 
Advent  is  not  one  of  such  breadth  as  wholly 
to    abolish    a    continuity,   which    was    also 
upheld   by  visible  institutions  divinely  or- 
7  (97) 


98 


OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF   THE 


dained,  and  by  the  production  of  certain 
of  the  Psahns  themselves.  It  is  further 
narrowed  in  so  far  as  something  of  a  divine 
afflatus  is  to  be  found  in  the  books  which 
form  the  Apocrypha,  which  are  esteemed 
by  a  large  division  of  Christendom  to  be 
actually  a  part  of  the  Sacred  Canon,  and 
which  in  the  Church  of  England  have  a 
place  of  special,  though  secondary,  honor. 
At  the  more  remote  end  of  the  scale,  it  is 
difficult  to  name  a  date  for  the  beginning 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  The  corroborative 
legends  of  Assyria,*  ascertained  by  modern 
research,  concerning  the  Creation  and  the 
Flood,  to  which  we  know  not  what  further 
additions  may  still  progressively  be  made> 
carry  us  up,t  it  may  be  roughly  said, 

"  To  the  first  syllable  of  recorded  time." 

Historic  evidence  does  not  at  present 
warrant  our  carrying  backwards  the  prob- 
able existence  of  the  Adamic  race  for  more 
than  some  such  epoch  as  from  4000  to  6000 
years  before  the  Advent  of  Christ.  And  if, 
as  appears  likely,  the  Creation  Story  has 
come  down  from  the  beginning,  and  the 
Flood    legend    is    also    contemporary,    the 

*  These  legends  will  be  separately  noticed  later  in  the 
present  series  of  essays. 

f  See  No.  VI.  of  this  series  for  the  ground  of  the 
argument,  which,  as  here  presented,  can  only  have  in  a 
certain  measure  the  character  of  an  assumption. 


OLD  TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE. 


99 


Christian  may  feel  a  lively  interest  in 
observing  that,  during  by  far  the  larger 
portion  of  human  history,  the  refreshing 
•  rain  of  Divine  inspiration  has  descended, 
•■^  with  comparatively  short  intervals,  from 
heaven  upon  earth,  and  the  records  of  it 
have  been  collected  and  transmitted  in  the 
■  Sacred  Volume.  Apart  from  every  ques- 
tion of  literary  form  and  detail,  we  now 
trace  the  probable  origins  of  our  Sacred 
Books  far  back  bevond  Moses  and  his  time. 
And  so  we  have  a  marvellous  picture  pre- 
sented to  us,  not  only  all-prevailing  for  the 
imagination,  the  heart,  and  the  conscience, 
of  man,  but  also,  as  I  suppose,  quite  unex- 
ampled in  its  historical  appeal  to  the  human 
intelligence.  The  whole  human  record  is 
covered  and  bound  together  in  that  same 
unwearied  and  inviolable  continuity,  which 
weaves  into  a  tissue  the  six  Mosaic  days  of 
gradually  developed  creation,  and  fastens 
them  on  at  the  hither  end  to  the  gradually 
advancing  stages  of  Adamic,  and  in  due 
course,  of  subsequent  history. 

We  find  then  that,  apart  from  the  ques- 
tion of  moral  purity  and  elevation,  the 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  appear  to 
be  distinfjuished  from  the  sacred  books 
possessed  by  various  nations  in  several  vital 
particulars.  They  deal  with  the  Adamic 
race    as    a   whole.     They    begin    with    the 


100         OFFICE  AND   WORK  OF  THE 

preparation  of  the  earth  for  the  habitation 
and  use  of  man.  They  then,  from  his  first 
origin,  draw  downwards  a  thread  of  properly- 
personal  history,  with  notices,  most  remark- 
able in  their  character,  but  contracted  in 
space,  of  divergent  families  of  men.  This 
thread  is  enlarged  into  a  web,  as  from  being 
personal  the  narrative  becomes  national, 
from  the  Exodus  onwards ;  and  eventually 
it  includes  the  whole  race  of  man.  Our 
Scriptures  are  not  given  once  for  all,  as  by 
Confucius  or  Zoroaster  in  their  respective 
spheres.  They  do  not  deliver  a  mere  code 
of  morals  or  of  legislation,  but  their 
character  is  pre-eminently  historical,  while 
they  purport  to  disclose  a  close  and  con- 
tinuing superintendence  from  on  High  over 
human  affairs.  And  the  whole  is  doubly 
woven  into  one  formation.  First,  by  a 
chain  of  Divine  action,  and  of  human  in- 
structors acting  under  Divine  authority, 
which  is  sustained  and  represented  by 
national  institutions,  and  is  never  broken 
until  the  time  when  political  servitude,  like 
another  Egyptian  captivity,  has  become  the 
appointed  destiny  of  the  nation.  Secondly, 
by  the  Messianic  bond,  by  the  light  of 
prophecy  shining  in  a  dark  place,  and  direct- 
ing onwards  the  minds  of  devout  men  to 
the  "  fulness  of  time  "  and  the  birth  of  the 
wondrous  Child,  so  as  effectually    to   link 


OLD  TES  TAME  NT  IN  O  UTL INE.     i  q  j 

the  older  sacred  books  to  the  dispensatiort 
of  the  Advent,  and  to  carry  forward  their 
office  through  an  action  both  of  and  in  the 
Church,  until  the  final  day  of  doom.  May 
it  not  boldly  be  asked,  what  parallel  to  such 
an  outline  as  this  can  be  supplied  by  any 
of  the  sacred  books  preserved  among  any 
other  of  the  races  of  the  world  ?  So  far, 
then,  the  office  and  work  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, as  presented  to  us  by  its  own  con- 
tents, is  without  a  compeer  among  the  old 
religions.  It  deals  with  the  case  of  man  as 
a  whole.  It  covers  all  time.  It  is  alike 
adapted  to  every  race  and  region  of  the 
earth.  And  how,  according  to  the  purport 
of  the  Old  Testament,  may  that  case  best 
be  summed  up  ?  In  these  words  :  it  is  a 
history  first  of  sin,  and  next  of  redemption. 

Our  Lord  has  emphatically  said,  "  They 
that  be  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but  they 
that  are  sick  ;  "  *  and  this  saying  goes  to  the 
root  of  the  whole  matter.  Is  there  or  is 
there  not  a  deep  disease  in  the  world,  which 
overflows  it  like  a  deluge,  and  submerges  in 
a  great  degree  the  fruit-bearing  capacities 
of  our  nature?  Are  we  as  a  race  whole,  or 
are  we  sick,  and  profoundly  sick  ? 

I  think  that  to  an  impartial  eye,  and  to  a 
thoughtful  mind,  it  must  seem  strange  that 
there  should  be  a  doubt  as  to  the  answer  to 

*  Matthew  ix.  12. 


I02         OFFICE  AND   WORK  OF  THE 

be  given  to  this  question.  It  seems  more 
easy  to  comprehend  the  mental  action  of 
those  whom  the  picture  of  the  actual  world, 
as  it  is  unrolled  before  them,  tempts,  by  its 
misery,  guilt,  and  shame,  into  doubt  of  the 
being  of  God,  than  of  persons  who  can 
view  that  picture,  and  who  cannot  but  ob- 
serve the  dominant  part  borne  by  man  in 
determining  its  character,  and  yet  can  make 
it  a  subject  of  question  whether  man  is 
morally  diseased.  Veils  may  have  been  cast 
between  our  vision  and  the  truth  of  the 
case  by  the  relative  excellence  of  some  se- 
lect human  spirits  ;  by  the  infinitely  varied 
degrees  and  forms  of  the  universal  malady; 
by  the  exaggerations  and  the  narrownesses 
of  outlying  schools  of  theology  ;  and  lastly 
'by  the  remarkable  circumstance,  that  races, 
above  all  the  extraordinarily  gifted  race  of 
the  ancient  Greeks,  have  lived  on  into  large 
developments  of  art,  of  intellect,  and  of  ma- 
terial power,  without  creating  or  retaining 
any  strong  conception  of  moral  evil,  under 
the  only  aspect  which  reveals  its  deeper 
features;  that  aspect,  namely,  which  pre- 
sents it  to  the  mind  as  a  departure  from  the 
supreme  and  perfect  standard,  the  will  of 
God.  But  these  disguises  are  pierced 
through  and  through  by  ever  so  little  of 
calm  reflection.  We  can  conceive  how  gen- 
erations, blinded  by  long  abuse  to  the  char- 


OLD   TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE.     103 

acter  of  moral  evil,  could  well  contrive  to 
blink  and  pass  by  the  question.  But  we, 
who  inherit  the  Christian  tradition,  ethical 
as  well  as  dogmatic,  cannot,  I  think,  deny 
the  prevalence,  perhaps  not  even  the  pre- 
ponderance, of  moral  evil  in  the  world, 
without  some  subtle  and  preliminary  proc- 
ess of  degeneracy  in  our  own  habit  of 
mind.  We  shall  find  that,  in  renouncing 
that  tradition,  we  return  to  a  conception 
which  admitted  to  be  evil  only  that,  which 
was  so  violently  in  conflict  with  the  com- 
fort of  human  society  as  to  require  condem- 
nation and  repression  by  its  self-preserving 
laws.  The  gap  between  these  two  concep- 
tions, the  one  of  disordered  nature,  the  other 
of  Divine  grace,  is  immeasurable. 

And  I  think  it  will  not  be  denied  that,  in 
describing  vividly  the  fact  of  sin  in  the 
world,  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament 
proceed  upon  lines,  which  have  also  been 
clearly  drawn  in  the  general  consciousness 
at  least  of  the  Christian  ages.  This  sense  of 
sin,  which  lies  like  a  black  pall  over  the  entire 
face  of  humanity,  has  been  all  along  the  point 
of  departure  for  every  preacher,  writer,  and 
thinker  within  the  Hebrew  or  the  Christian 
fold  ;  and  it  is  the  gradual  and  palpable  de- 
cline of  it,  in  the  literature  and  society  of  to- 
day, that  is  the  darkest  among  all  the  sign.s 
now   overshadowing    what  is  in   some   re- 


104 


OFFICE  AND   WORK  OF  THE 


spects  the  bright  and  hopeful  promise  of 
the  future. 

Nor  can  any  one,  who  beHeves  in  the  ex- 
istence of  God,  wonder  that  sin  is  described 
as  a  deviation  from  the  order  of  nature, 
as  a  foreign  element,  not  belonging  to  the 
original  creation  of  Divine  design,  but  in- 
troduced into  it  by  special  causes.  At  this 
point  we  come  to  what  is  known  as  the  fall 
of  man,  and  to  the  narration  of  that  fall  as 
it  is  given  in  the  Book  of  Genesis. 

Against  this  narration  the  negative  criti- 
cism has  been  actively  employed.  The  ac- 
tion ascribed  to  the  serpent  is  declared  to 
be  incredible ;  the  punishment  of  Adam, 
disproportioned  to  the  offence,  which  con- 
sisted only  in  an  action  not  essentially  im- 
moral ;  the  punishment  of  all  mankind,  for 
the  fault  of  one,  intolerably  unjust. 

Now  let  us  set  entirely  aside,  for  the  mo- 
ment, the  form  of  this  narrative,  and  con- 
sider only  its  substance.  Let  us  deal  with 
it  as  if  it  were  a  parable ;  in  which  the  sev- 
erance between  the  form  and  the  substance 
is  acknowledged  and  familiar.  In  propos- 
ing this,  I  do  not  mean  to  make  on  my  own 
part  any  definitive  surrender  of  the  form  as 
it  stands,  or  any  admission  adverse  to  it. 
There  is,  it  may  be,  high  and  early  Chris- 
tian authority  even  for  surrendering  the 
form.     I  only  seek  to  pass  within  it,  and  to 


OLD   TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE.     105 

put  the  meaning  and  substance  of  it  upon 
their  trial. 

In  this  relation,  we  find  a  certain  aggre- 
gate of  objects,  which  we  are  now  to  treat 
as  if  they  were  simply  significant  figures. 
There  are  presented  to  us  the  man,  with  the 
woman,  in  a  garden;  the  serpent,  with  its 
faculty  of  speech  ;  the  two  trees,  of  knowl- 
edge and  of  life  respectively  ;  a  fruit  forbid- 
den b}'  Divine  command,  but  eaten  in 
defiance  of  it;  and,  after  certain  reproofs 
and  intimations,  ejectment  from  the  garden 
in  consequence.  In  this  ejectment  is  involved 
a  crreat  deterioration  of  outward  state.  But 
it  is  not  a  matter  of  outward  state  alone. 
A  deterioration  of  inward  nature  is  also 
exhibited,  in  the  derangement  of  its  func- 
tions. A  new  sense  of  shame  bears  witness 
to  the  revolt  *  of  its  lower  against  its  higher 
elements  ;  and,  for  the  first  time,  exhibits  it 
to  us  as  a  disordered,  and  therefore  a  dishon- 
ored thing.  Together  with  all  this,  there 
is  the  outline  of  a  promise  that,  from  among 
the  progeny  of  the  fallen  pair  a  Deliverer, 

*  See  Delitzsch,  who,  in  accordance  with  patristic  au- 
thorities, writes  as  follows  :  "Thefir.-.t  consequence  of 
the  fall  was  shame.  The  nakedness  of  mankind  is  no 
longer  the  appearance  of  their  innocence.  Their  cor- 
poreity has  fallen  from  the  dominion  of  the  spirit.  Their 
beholding  has  liecome  a  sensuous  imagining,  and  the 
flesh  excites  their  fleshly  passions "{"  Old  Testament 
History  of  Redemption,"  p.  23.  Edinburgh:  Clark. 
1881). 


I06         OFFICE  AND   WORK  OF  THE 

born  of  woman,  shall  arise,  who,  at  the  cost 
of  personal  suffering,  shall  strike  at  the 
very  seat  of  life  in  the  living  emblem  of 
evil,  and  so  shall  destroy  its  power.  In 
this  relation,  on  the  one  hand,  many  modern 
objectors  have  discovered  an  intolerable 
folly,  and,  on  the  other,  the  Christian 
tradition  of  eighteen  centuries  has  acknowl- 
edged a  profound  philosophy,  and  a  pain- 
ful and  faithful  delineation  of  an  indis- 
putable truth. 

Now  what  is  the  substance  conveyed 
under  this  form  ?  The  Almighty  has 
brought  into  existence  a  pair  of  human 
beings.  He  has  laid  upon  them  a  law  of 
obedience,  not  to  a  Decalogue  or  code,  set- 
ting forth  things  essentially  good,  and  the 
reverse  of  them,  but  simply  to  a  rule  of 
feeding  and  not  feeding.  The  point,  at 
which  this  representation  first  brings  into 
view  an  independent  or  objective  law,  lies 
in  the  prohibition  to  feed  upon  a  tree  which 
imparts  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil. 
That  is  to  say,  the  pair,  as  they  then  were, 
were  forbidden  to  aspire  to  the  possession 
of  that  knowledge.  It  was  a  dispensation 
of  pure  obedience. 

The  question  whether  this  was  reasonable 
or  unreasonable  cannot  be  answered  upon 
abstract  grounds,  but  resolves  itself  into 
another   question,  whether   it  was   appro- 


OLD   TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE. 


107 


priate  or  inappropriate  to  the  state  of  the 
beings  thus  addressed,  and  to  their  relation 
towards  Him  who  gave  the  command. 
Some  may  assume  that  Adam  was  what  so 
great  a  writer  as  Milton  has  represented 
him  to  be — 

"  For  contemplation  he  and  valor  formed,"* 

and  not  for  contemplation  only,  but  for 
intricate  inquiry  and  debate  on  subjects 
such  as  tax  all  the  powers  of  a  cultivated 
intellect.  And  indeed,  if  we  take  the  de- 
veloped man,  such  as  we  know  him  in 
Christian  and  civilized  society,  it  seems 
plain  that  to  lay  down  for  him  a  law  of  life 
which  did  not  include  the  consideration  of 
essential  good  and  evil,  would  not  only 
stunt  and  starve  his  faculties,  but  would 
shock  his  moral  sense. 

It  may  be  said  that  a  single  act  of  dis- 
obedience, even  after  full  warning,  could 
not  so  deprave  a  character  as  reasonably  to 
entail  upon  the  offender  a  total  change  of 
condition.  But  I  would  observe  that  the 
school  of  critics  which  is  apt  to  take  this 
objection  is  the  very  school  which,  utterly 
rejecting  the  literal  form  of  the  narrative, 
is  bound  to  look  at  it  as  parable.  When  so 
contemplated,  its  lesson  is  that  rebellion,  de- 
liberate and  wilful  (and  this  is  nothing  less), 
*  "Paradise  Lost"  (iv.  297). 


I08         OFFICE  AND   WORK  OF  THE 

against  just  and  sovereign  authority,  funda- 
mentally changes  for  the  worse  the  charac- 
ter of  the  rebel.  It  places  him  in  a  new- 
category  of  motive  and  action,  in  which  the 
repetition  of  the  temptation  ordinarily  be- 
gets the  repetition  of  the  sin  ;  and  it  is 
inercy,  not  cruelty,  which  meets  this  deteri- 
oration of  character,  not  with  a  final  and 
judicial  abandonment,  but  with  a  deteriora- 
tion .and  reduction  of  state,  such  as  to 
teach  the  lesson  of  retribution,  and  to  serve 
as  an  emphatic  warning  against  further 
sin. 

Scripture  will  lie  before  us  in  a  true  per- 
spective when  we  come  to  understand  that 
■everywhere  the  will  of  God  is  in  accord 
with  the  righteousness  of  God,  and  that 
•what  is  promised  or  inflicted  by  command 
is  also  promised  or  inflicted  by  self-acting 
•consequence,  according  to  the  constitution 
•of  the  nature  we  have  received.  Religion 
and  philosophy  thus  join  hands,  and  never 
part  them.  When,  therefore,  we  are  told 
that  Adam  after  his  sin  was  shut  out  from 
Eden,  we  are  not  entitled  to  say,  how  hard 
that  he  could  not  be  allowed  to  return,  and 
then  perhaps  to  amend.  What  is  inflicted 
as  penalty  from  without  is  acted  and  suf- 
fered in  character  within.  Repentance  is  not 
innocence ;  there  must  be  a  remedial  proc- 
ess •,  and,  until  that  process  has  been  faith- 


OLD  TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE. 


109 


fully  accomplished,  the  anterior  state  and 
habit  of  mind  cannot  be  resumed. 

I  do  not  argue  with  those  who  say  this  is 
a  bad  constitution  of  things,  under  which 
sin  engenders  sinfulness  ;  some  better  one 
might  surely  have  been  devised.  This  is 
to  say,  "  had  I  been  in  the  Creator's  place, 
I  would  have  managed  the  business  of 
creation  better."  It  is  for  us  not  merely  as 
Christians,  but  as  men  of  sense,  to  eschew 
speculations  which  even  their  authors  must 
see  to  be  wholly  devoid  of  practical  effect^ 
and  to  assume  the  great  moral  laws  and 
constitution  of  our  nature  as  ultimate  facts, 
as  boundaries  which  it  is  futile  to  attempt  to 
overstep. 

To  my  mind,  then,  the  narrative  of  the 
Fall  is  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  a 
gwand  and  comprehensive  philosophy,  and 
the  objections  taken  to  it  are  the  product  of 
narrower  and  shallower  modes  of  thought. 
Introducing  us  to  Adamic  man  in  his  first 
stage  of  existence — a  stage  not  of  savagery 
but  of  childhood — it  exhibits  to  us  the 
gigantic  drama  of  his  evolution  in  its  open- 
ing. In  the  Paradise  of  the  Book  of  Genesis, 
it  reduces  to  a  practical  form  the  noble 
legend  of  the  Golden  Age,  cherished  es- 
pecially in  prehistoric  Greece.  It  wisely 
teaches  us  to  look  to  misused  free-will  as 
the  source  of  all  the  sin,  and  mainly  of  the 


I  lo         OFFICE  AND  WORK  OF  THE 

accompanying  misery,  which  still  overflow 
the  world,  and  environ  human  life  like  a 
moral  deluge.  It  shows  us  man  in  his 
childhood,  no  less  responsible  for  disobe- 
dience to  simple  command,  than  man  in  his 
manhood  for  contravention  of  those  laws 
of  essential  right  and  wrong,  which  remain 
now  and  for  ever  clothed  with  the  majesty 
of  Divine  command.  It  teaches  us  how  sin 
begets  sin  ;  how  the  rebellion  of  the  creature 
against  the  Creator  was  at  once  followed  by 
the  rebellion  of  the  creature's  lower  appetites 
against  his  higher  mind  and  will.  It  im- 
presses upon  us  that  sin  is  not  like  the  bird 
lightly  flying  past  us  in  the  air,  which  closes 
on  it  as  it  goes,  and  carries  no  trace  behind 
it.  It  alters  for  the  worse  the  very  being 
of  the  man  that  acts  it,  and  leaves  to  him  a 
deteriorated  essence.  This  he  in  turn,  by 
the  inexorable  laws  of  his  constitution, 
transmits  to  his  descendants  ;  and  this  again 
in  them  exhibits,  variably,  yet  on  the  whole 
with  clear  and  even  glaring  demonstration, 
the  evil  bias,  which  it  has  received ;  and 
which  it  retains  until  it  shall  be  happily 
corrected  and  renewed  by  those  remedial 
means,  which  it  was  the  office  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament to  foreshadow,  and  of  the  New  to  es- 
tablish. Everywhere,  then,  in  this  narrative 
we  find  that  it  is  instinct  with  the  highest 
principles  of  the  moral  and  judicial  order. 


OLD   TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE.     1 1 1 

For  the  present  I  pass  by  the  Flood  * 
and  the  Dispersion,  f  which  may  be  most 
conveniently  considered  in  connection  with 
what  is  termed  profane  history  ;  and  I  touch 
next  upon  the  call  of  Abraham.  This  call 
imports  the  selection  of  a  peculiar  and 
separate  family,  which  was  afterwards  to 
grow  into  a  people.  They  were  to  be  in  a 
special  degree  the  subjects  of  God's  care, 
the  guardians  of  His  Word,  and  the  vehicles 
of  His  promises.  Of  all  great  and  distinc- 
tive chapters  in  the  Biblical  history  of  the 
human  race  since  Paradise,  we  have  here 
perhaps  the  greatest  and  the  most  distinctive. 

The  selection  of  a  family  may  be  regarded 
from  many  points  of  view. 

When  sin  had  come  into  the  world,  it  de- 
veloped itself  in  the  forms  of  infirmity,  and  of 
apostasy  :  if  it  be  allowed  to  describe  rudely 
by  their  general  terms  the  form  of  character 
which  distinguished  the  race  of  Cain  from  the 
raceofSeth.  What  we  see  of  the  former  is,  as 
described  in  Gen.  iv.  16-24,  •t''  I'^pid  advance, 
and  apparently  its  marked  precedence,  in 
arts  and  powers.  It  disappears  entirely 
with  the  story  of  the  Flood  ;  and  we  are 
left  to  infer  that  it  may  have  had  a  principal 
share  in  calling  down  that  great  retribution 
inflicted  upon  revolt  from  God. 

After  the  Deluge,  in   the   time  of  Peleg, 
*  Genesis  vi.-viii.  f  Genesis  x. 


112         OFFICE  AND   WORK  OF  THE 

fifth  from  Noah,  selection  again  appears, 
and  is  carried  down  in  Gen.  xi.  to  Abraham, 
from  whom  an  unbroken  thread  runs  on- 
ward into  the  period  when  the  chosen  family- 
had  become  a  chosen  nation. 

This  choice  of  a  particular  family  or  race 
may  be  advantageously  contrasted  with  the 
heathen  method  of  selection  or  preference, 
by  the  deification  of  individuals.  Of  the 
■first,  it  is  obvious  that  it  reached  over  all 
time  ;  that  in  this  way  it  tended  to  assert 
the  unity  of  the  human  race  ;  and  that  it 
was  never  exclusive,  as  it  always  (not  to 
-mention  other  proofs)  invited  to  partake  of 
its  benefits  the  "  stranger "  with  whom  it 
had  come  into  contact.  The  rival  method 
of  deification  broke  communion  rather  than 
established  it,  and  was  based  on  no  rational 
principle  of  choice.  It  was  corrupt  as  well 
as  arbitrary,  for  the  deified  were  not  the 
best.  But  what  I  would  here  chiefly  press 
is,  that  the  continuous  selection  of  a  family 
was  a  bar  to  deification,  because  deification 
was  essentiallv  founded  on  individualities: 
instead  of  that  headship  in  series,  which 
presented  to  humanity  as  its  chiefs  a  line- 
age. Of  this  every  member  had  his  destiny 
as  it  were  locked  into  that  of  the  rest  by  an 
•essential  parity.  This  kind  of  selection  did 
not  favor  idolatry,  like  the  other,  but  built 
up  a  wall  against  it.     And  so  it  came  about, 


OLD  TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE. 


113 


as  we  have  seen,  that,  even  when  idolatry- 
invaded  and  possessed  the  people,  it  never 
tainted  the  religion. 

This  selection  of  Abraham  and  his  prog- 
eny, if  we  speak  after  the  manner  of  men, 
we  might  perhaps  describe  as  follows.  The 
original  attempt  to  plant  a  species  upon  our 
planet,  which  should  be  endowed  with  the 
faculty  of  free-will,  but  should  al\va\'s  di-  • 
rect  that  will  to  good,  had  been  frustrated 
through  sin  ;  and  the  tainted  progeny  had, 
after  a  trial  of  many  generations,  been 
destroyed  by  the  Deluge.  In  the  descend- 
ants of  Noah,  man  was  renewed  upon  a  far 
larger  scale.  Different  branches  of  the 
race*  were  sent,  or  were  allowed  to  go 
forth,  and  to  people  different  portions  of  the 
earth,  each  carrying  with  them  different 
gifts,  and  different  vocations  according  to 
those  gifts;  the  notes  of  which,  in  various 
prominent  cases,  we  cannot  fail  to  discern 
written  large  upon  the  page  of  history.  After 
a  brief  period,  choice  was  made  not  of  a 
nation,  but  of  a  person,  namely,  Abraham, 
who  with  his  descendants  became  the  sub- 
ject of  a  special  training.  They  lived,  ac- 
cording to  the  record  in  the  Bible,  not  like 
other  men  generally,  dependent  upon  the 
exercise  of  their  natural  faculties  alone, 
but  with  the  advantage    from  time  to  time, 


*  Genesis  x. 


8 


114 


OFFICE  AND   WORK  OF  THE 


and  with  the  continuing  responsibiHty,  of 
supernatural  command  and  visitation.  But 
this  remarkable  promotion  to  a  higher 
form  of  life  did  not  invest  them  with  any 
arbitrary  or  selfish  prerogative.  On  the 
contrary,  as  the  legislation  of  Moses  was 
distinguished  from  other  ancient  codes  by  its 
hberal  and  likewise  elaborate  care  for  the 
stranger;  so  also,  from  the  very  outset,  and 
before  the  family  could  blossom  into  the 
nation,  nay,  even  in  the  very  person  of  Abra- 
ham, the  gift  imparted  to  him  was  declared 
to  be  given  for  the  behoof  of  mankind  at 
large.  "  In  thee  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all 
the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed."  *  The 
prerogative  of  the  Jew  was,  from  its  very 
inception,  bound  up  with  the  future  eleva- 
tion of  the  Gentile. 

This  divine  election  doubtless  carried 
with  it  the  duty  and  the  means  of  reaching 
a  higher  level  of  moral  life  than  prevailed 
amonof  the  surroundinsf  Asiatic  nations. 
These  nations,  sharing  with  the  chosen  race 
the  infirmity  and  deterioration  of  nature, 
differed  in  this,  that  they  at  once  carried  the 
reflection  of  their  own  sinfulness  into  their 
creed  respecting  the  unseen,  and  made  re- 
ligion itself  a  direct  instrument  of  corrup- 
tion. Yet  those,  whom  we  call  the  patri- 
archs, were  not  exempted  from  the  general 

*  Genesis  xxviii.  14. 


OLD  TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE,     nc 

degeneracy  of  morals;  and  even  Abraham, 
the  general  strain  of  whose  life  appears  to 
have  been  so  simple  and  devout,  on  going 
down  into  Egypt  to  escape  from  famine,  ex- 
posed his  wife  to  the  risk  of  an  adulterous 
connection  with  the  king  of  the  country, 
lest,  if  she  were  known  to  be  his  wife,  his  .' 
personal  safety  should  be  compromised.  On 
the  moral  standing  of  the  nation  sprung 
from  Abraham,  as  compared  with  that  of 
contemporary  races,  there  will  be  more  to 
say  hereafter.  Meantime,  it  may  be  ob- 
served that  the  sins  and  follies  of  the  favored 
race,  as  well  as  of  their  priests  and  rulers, 
are  told  in  the  narrative  frankly,  and  with- 
out attempting  to  excuse  them.  This  frank- 
ness of  narration  extends  also  to  the  calam- 
ities which  befell  the  Israelites  ;  and,  as  an 
evidence  of  the  integrity  of  the  Hebrew  pen- 
men, it  suggests  a  presumption  that  such 
plain  speaking,  in  the  face  of  national  and 
ancestral  self-love,  is,  to  say  the  least,  highly 
in  accordance  with  the  belief  that  the  record 
generally  was  framed  under  special  guidance 
from  above. 

The  selection  of  Abraham  and  his  pos- 
terity was  at  the  least  a  boon  to  some,  a  pri- 
vation to  none.  In  its  immediate  effect,  it 
•withdrew  nothing  from  the  nations  outside 
the  Hebrew  pale.  It  bestowed,  indeed, 
upon  the  parallel  line  of  Ishmael  a  prefer- 


Il6         OFFICE  AND   WORK  OF  THE 

ential  but  inferior  blessing,  which,  however^ 
it  is  no  part  of  the  present  purpose  to  ex- 
amine, further  than  to  say  that  the  Moham- 
medan reh'gion  may  be  regarded,  in  its 
conflict  with  the  idolatry  which  it  first 
confronted,  and  in  the  present  day  among^ 
the  tribes  of  Western  Africa,  as  having  been, 
if  not  permanently  yet  for  a  time,  the  com- 
munication of  a  relative  good.  And  the 
Old  Testament  abounds  with  passages 
which  demonstrate  the  care,  and  even  the 
special  care,  of  the  Almighty  for  nations 
other  than  the  Jews.* 

But  the  object,  which  now  demands  our 
attention,  is  the  promise  of  a  blessing  in  and 
by  the  seed  of  Abraham  to  all  the  nations- 
of  the  earth.  The  first-fruits  of  this  bless- 
ing maybe  said  to  have  been  perceived  in- 
the  translation  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament into  Greek  during  the  third  century 
before  the  Advent.  At  the  time  when  the 
language  of  the  Greeks  was  maturing  its 
supremacy,  in  the  East  through  the  con- 
quests of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  in  the 
West  through  appreciation  by  the  Roman 
and  Italian  genius,  in  some  respects  allied 
to  their  own,  the  Greek  race  itself  was  on 
its  decline,  both  as  to  its  intellect  and  as  to 
its  practical  energy.     This  decline  may,  per- 

*  See,  fcr  example,  the  two  first  chapters  of  Amos> 
and  the  whole  book  of  Jonah. 


OLD  TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE,     nj 

haps,  have  rendered  the  world  more  recep- 
tive of  the  influences,  which  the  substance 
of  the  Hebrew  books  was  calculated  to 
■exercise. 

There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that,  among 
all  the  forms  of  Hellenic  thought  exhibited 
in  the  different  schools  of  philosophy,  that 
of  the  Stoics  was  the  highest  in  respect  of 
its  conception  of  the  Deity,  of  its  emancipa- 
tion from  idolatry,  and  of  its  capacity  of 
moral  elevation.  In  the  hands  of  Seneca, 
■of  Epictetus,  and  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  Stoic 
ideas  attained  so  high  a  level  as  to  have 
been  used  by  some  in  disparagement  of  the 
•exclusive  claim  of  the  Gospel  to  the  pro- 
mulgation of  truths  powerful  enough  to  re- 
generate the  world.  Without  asserting 
that  the  early  Stoics  derived  their  inspira- 
tion through  the  Greek  version,  called  the 
Septuagint,  from  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  it 
may  be  observed  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
philosophy  rose  to  its  highest  level  through 
the  Stoics  at  a  time  when  the  Greek  mind 
was  declining  ;  and  further,  that  Stoicism 
made  its  first  appearance,  and  began  its  ad- 
vance, at  the  epoch  when  those  Scriptures 
had  become  accessible.  Also  it  arose  and 
flourished  not  in  Greece  itself,  but  at  points 
such  as  Citium,  in  countries  such  as  Pontus, 
in  schools  of  learning  such  as  Alexandria, 


Il8        OFFICE  AND    WORK   OF   THE 

which  were   seats   of  Jewish   resort  and  in- 
fluence. * 

It  was  an  advance  of  a  different  order 
towards  the  fulfihiient  of  the  Abrahamic 
promises,  when  the  Apostles,  charged  with 
the  commission  of  our  Lord,  went  forth 
into  all  the  world,  and  preached  the  gospel 
to  every  creature. f  Then,  indeed,  an 
enginery  was  set  at  work,  capable  of  coping 
with  the  whole  range  of  the  mischiefs 
brought  into  the  world  by  sin,  and  of  com- 
pletely redeeming  the  human  being  from 
its  effects,  and  consecrating  our  nature  to 
duty  and  to  God.  It  is  impossible  here  to 
do  so  much  as  even  to  skirt  this  vast  sub- 
ject. But  at  once  these  three  things  may 
be  said  as  to  the  development,  through  the 
Gospel,  of  the  Abrahamic  promise.  First, 
that  in  the  vast  aggregate  of  genuine  be- 
lievers, the  recovery  of  the  Divine  image 
has  been  effectual,  and  the  mainspring  of 
their  being  has  been  set  right  before  their 

*  See  "  Encycl.  Britann."'  gth  ed.  Art.  Stoics.  It 
states  that  "  the  school  is  mainly  to  be  considered  as  the 
first-fruits  of  that  interaction  between  West  and  East, 
which  folfowed  the  conquests  of  Alexander.  Zeno  was 
of  Phcenician  descent;  Cypius,  Silicia,  Syria,  the  main 
countries  of  its  origin.  Ciiiuni,  Alexandria,  Heraclea, 
Pontus,  were  prominent  among  the  places  furnishing  and 
rearing  its  teachers.  Most  of  the  Stoics  were  from  lands 
of  Hellenistic  (as  distinct  from  Hellenic)  civilization.  It 
was  the  growth  of  the  Hellenized  East." 
t  Mark  xvi,  15. 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE. 


119 


quitting  the  world,  by  the  dedication  of  the 
will  to  God.  Secondly,  that  the  social 
results  of  the  change  have  been  beneficial 
and  immense,  in  the  restriction  of  wars,  in 
the  abolition  of  horrible  practices  publicly 
sanctioned;  in  the  recognition  of  essential 
rights  ;  in  the  elevation  of  woman  (whose 
case  most  and  best  of  all  represents  the  case 
of  right  as  against  force);  in  the  mitigation 
of  selfish  and  cruel  laws;  in  the  refinement 
of  manners;  in  the  utter  proscription  of  all 
extreme  forms  of  sin  ;  and  in  the  public 
acknowledgment  of  standards  of  action 
nearer  to  the  true.  Thirdly,  that  Christen- 
dom is  at  this  moment  undeniably  the 
prime  and  central  power  of  the  world,  and 
still  bears,  written  upon  its  front,  the  mis- 
sion to  subdue  it.  In  point  of  force  and 
onward  impulsion,  it  stands  without  a  rival, 
while  every  other  widely  sj^read  religion  is 
in  decline.  Critical,  indeed,  are  the  move- 
ments which  affect  it  from  within.  Vast 
are  the  deductions  which  on  every  side  are 
to  be  made  from  the  fulness  of  the  Divine 
promises,  when  we  try  to  measure  their 
results  in  the  world  of  facts.  Indefinitely 
slow,  and  hard  to  trace  in  detail,  as  may  be, 
like  a  glacier  in  descent,  the  march  of  the 
times,  the  Christianity  of  to-day  has,  in 
relation  to  the  world  non-Christian,  an 
amount  of  ascendency  such  as  it  has  never 


120       OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF   THE 

before  possessed  ;  and,  if  only  it  can  suffi- 
ciently retain  its  inward  consistency,  the 
sole  remaining  question  seems  to  be  as  to 
the  time,  the  circumstances,  and  the  rate  of 
its  further,  perhaps  of  its  final,  conquests. 

I  know  that  it  is  far  beyond  the  scope  of 
a  few  pages  such  as  these  to  make  good  in 
detail  the  claims  of  the  Abrahamic  promise. 
Still,  I  think  that  even  what  has  been  said 
may  in  some  measure  suffice  for  the  pur- 
pose which  I  have  immediately  in  view. 
That  purpose  is  to  establish  in  outline  the 
strictly  exceptional  character  of  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  with  this  aim 
to  show  that  they  bear  upon  them  the  stamp 
of  a  comprehensiveness  which  concerns, 
which  penetrates,  nay,  which  envelops  the 
history  of  the  world  as  a  whole.  The 
promise,  given  to  Abraham  nearly  two 
thousand  years  before  the  Advent,  finds  its 
correlative  marks  in  the  general  train  of 
subsequent  history.  These  marks  demon- 
strate that  it  was  given  by  a  Divine  fore- 
knowledge. And  if  so,  then  the  venerable 
record  in  which  it  is  enshrined  surely  seems 
here,  at  least,  to  carry  the  seal  and  signature 
of  a  Divine  authorship. 

Now  let  us  consider  from  another  point 
of  view  the  selection  of  the  Hebrew  race, 
and  the  peculiar  standing  of  the  Mosaic 
legislation,    so    intimately   allied    with    the 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE.    121 

whole  of  its  singularly  chequered  fortunes. 
And  in  order  to  effect  something  towards 
ascertaining  what  was  probably  the  cause 
determining  the  Divine  selection  and  pro- 
cedure, we  may  do  well  first  to  refer  to 
some  aims  which  might  at  first  sight  have 
been  thought  probable  ;  such  as,  to  provide 
a  complete  theology  ;  or  such  as,  to  reward 
with  honor,  wealth,  and  power  a  peculiarly 
virtuous  people,  whose  moral  conduct  was 
to  be  of  a  nature  likely  to  make  them  an 
edifying  and  attractive  example  to  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  Human  speculation 
might  have  been  forward  to  anticipate  that 
one  or  both  of  these  aims  might  have  been 
contemplated  by  a  plan  so  exceptional,  as 
the  selection  and  isolation  of  one  particular 
line  and  people.  But  the  facts  appear  to 
show  that  any  such  anticipation  would  have 
been  entirely  mistaken. 

By  a  complete  theology,  I  mean  simply 
such  a  theology  as  would  confront  and 
make  provision  for  all  the  leading  facts  of 
the  moral  situation.  Among  these  a  promi 
nent  place  had  from  the  date  of  the  first 
traditions  been  given  to  the  entrance  of  sin 
into  the  world,  and  to  the  promise  of 
redemption  from  its  power.  Now  it  is  evi- 
dent that  there  was  no  attempt,  in  the  legis- 
lation of  the  Pentateuch,  at  this  theological 
completeness.     Its   theology  is  summed  up 


122        OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF  THE 

in  clear  declarations  of  the  being  of  God 
and  of  duty  and  love  to  Him,  with  which 
are  directly  associated,  in  the  Decalogue, 
the  main  items  of  man's  duty  to  his  neigh- 
bor, and,  both  there  and  elsewhere,  the 
doctrines  of  rewards  and  punishments.  The 
race  also  inherited  the  narrative  of  what  is 
termed  in  Christian  theology  the  Fall  of 
Man.  This,  however,  was  part  of  the 
anterior  tradition  ;  and,  though  implied  in 
the  Mosaic  system,  was  neither  directly  set 
forth  in  its  terms,  nor  made  a  common  sub- 
ject of  allusion  in  the  historic  books,  how- 
ever it  may  have  been  involved  in  the  sac- 
rificial system. 

But  these  rewards  and  punishments  are 
of  a  temporal  nature  ;  and  the  Mosaic  legis- 
lation is  thought  to  give  no  indication  of  a 
future  state  or  of  an  Underworld.  This  is 
the  more  remarkable,  because  the  early 
chapters  of  Genesis,  although  they  usually 
contain  but  the  merest  outline  of  history, 
are  not  without  such  indication.*  Enoch, 
at  the  end  of  his  365  years,  "  was  not,  for 
God  took  him."  These  remarkable  words 
are  substituted  for  the  formula  given  in  the 
cases  of  the  other  patriarchs,  whose  record 
closes  with  the  phrase,  "and  he  died."t 
Here  there  seems  to  be  a  clear  manifesta- 
tion of  the  state  into  which  Enoch  is  de- 
*  Genesis  v.  24.  f  Ibid.  v.  5,  and  passim. 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE.    123 

clared    to    have    entered,    without    passing 
through  the  gate  of  death. 

Again,  we  now  know,  from  the  Egyptian 
Book  of  the  Dead  and  otherwise,  that  the 
rehgious  system  of  that  country  not  only 
included,  but  was  greatly  based  upon,  the 
conception  of  a  future  life.  It  seems  ab-  " 
solutely  impossible  that  the  Israelites,  even 
had  they  not  been  aware  of  it  already, 
could  have  dwelt  for  many  generations  in 
the  land  of  Egypt  without  coming  to  know 
of  it.  Our  Lord  Himself  affirms  that  they 
knew  it  in  His  time.*  And  we  have  it  ex- 
hibited to  us  in  the  Psalms, f  which  exhibit 
the  interior  and  spiritual  life  of  chosen 
souls. 

It  has,  perhaps,  been  too  much  the  prac- 
tice to  assume  that  the  Mosaic  law  is  to  be 
regarded  as  an  enlargement  of  the  patri- 
archal religion.  Without  doubt  it  is  at 
least  a  very  large  and  important  supple- 
ment to  that  religion.  But  a  supplement 
differs  from  an  enlarged  and  reconstructed 
edition  :  it  is  less,  as  well  as  more.  It  need 
not  contain  everything  contained  in  that  to 
which  it  is  a  supplement.  Here  is  a  great 
and  vital  particular,  in  which  the  Mosaic 
law  cannot  be  said  even  to  have  republished 
the    patriarchal    religion ;  and  which    both 

*  Matthew  xxii.  32;   Mark  xii.  27. 

•}•  For  example,  Psalms  xvi.  10;  xlix.  15. 


124 


OFFICE  AND    WORK   OF   THE 


preceded  and  survived  the  law,  but  did  not 
find  a  place  in  it.  Accordingly,  among  the 
Jews  of  the  Advent,  the  school  which  most 
rigidly  adhered  to  the  letter  of  the  law, 
namely,  that  of  the  Sadducees,*  denied  the 
future  state,  and  held  "that  there  is  no  res- 
urrection, neither  angel  nor  spirit." 

We  are  not,  therefore,  to  suppose  that 
Israel  was  without  the  hope  of  a  future 
life,  which  St.  Peter  on  the  Day  of  Pente- 
cost himself  demonstrated  out  of  the  Six- 
teenth Psalm  ;  f  but  only  to  perceive  that 
the  Mosaic  legislation  was  limited  to  its 
proper  purpose;  that,  namely,  of  setting 
apart  a  nation  from  the  rest  of  mankind, 
and  providing  it  with  peculiar  means  and 
guarantees  for  the  fulfilment  of  its  mission 
as  a  nation.  It  erected  a  walled  precinct, 
within  which  the  ancient  belief  of  the 
fathers  was  to  find  shelter  and  to  thrive, 
while  it  was  wofully  dwindling  and  perish- 
ing among  all  the  kindred  nations  of  the 
Avorld.  It  supplied  an  impregnable  home 
for  personal  religion.  But  personal  religion, 
taken  by  itself,  is  conspicuously  weak  in  the 
m-eans  of  transmission  from  age  to  age.  The 
sons  of  Eli  were  wicked  persons,  and  the  evil 
Manasseh  succeeds  the  pious  Hezekiah. 
It  is  not  without  the  aid  of  fixed  and  solid 
institutions,  which  take  hold  upon  masses  of 

*  Acts  xxiii.  8.  f  Acts  ii.  25. 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE.     125 

men  collectively,  that  the  sacred  fire  is  kept 
alive  among  us.     Hence  our  Lord  did  not 
merely  teach   His  holy  precepts,  and  fulfil 
His  Divine  career  in   His  own  person,  but 
founded  His  Church  on  earth,  to  carry  His 
work   onwards  even  to  the  day  of  doom. 
And  hence,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Most 
Hish,  Moses  was  commissioned  to  establish 
a    system    which,  without   being    m    itself 
complete,  provided  for  the  double  purpose, 
first,  of  building  up  a  fortress  (so  to  call  it) 
within    whose  wall    true    spiritual    religion 
might    in     singular    fulness    liourish    and 
abound ;    and,  secondly,   of  establishing    a 
firmly  knit  national  system  of  doctrine  and 
worship,  intended  to  secure  the  permanent 
purity  of  belief  in  the  one  self-existent  God, 
and    the    continuing    practice    of    a    ritual 
which  set  forth  in  act  the  existence  of  sin, 
and    made    intelligible  and   familiar  to  the 
people   at   large  some  need  of  deliverance 
from  it  by  reconciliation.     And  so,  through 
the  long  ages  from  the  Exodus  to  the  Ad- 
vent,  there   lived   on   the  two   systems   to- 
gether,  distinct    but    accordant.     The    one 
was     the     religion     of     interior     devotion, 
powerfully  upheld  and  stimulated,  as  occa- 
sion offered,  by  the  Prophets,  and  continu- 
ally exercised  and  developed   in  the  public 
ritual  by  the  Psalms.     The  other  was  the 
religion  of  exterior  worship.     This  was  full 


126       OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF   THE 

of  significance.  It  had  a  command  over 
the  entire  people.  It  was  incorporated  in 
public  laws  and  institutions,  and  was  asso- 
ciated at  every  point  with  the  national  life. 
These  outer  means  so  operated  as  to  ex- 
empt the  higher  and  interior  treasure  from 
the  risks  of  dependence  on  short-lived  in- 
dividual fervor,  and  provided  secure  means 
for  its  transmission  from  age  to  age. 

We  have  in  the  institution  of  the  pro- 
phetic school  the  setting  forth  of  a  pro- 
found lesson,  which  reminds  us  that  the 
Mosaic  system  was  alike  in  itself  necessary, 
and  of  itself  insufficient. 

From  another,  and  possibly  even  more 
commanding,  point  of  view,  we  perceive  the 
insufficiency  of  Mosaism  to  fill  up  fully  the 
outlines  of  the  Divine  dispensations.  Sin, 
in  the  form  of  disobedience  to  Divine  com- 
mand, had  entered  into  the  world,  and  had 
utterly  marred  the  fair  order  which,  at  the 
outset,  the  Almighty  had  noted  in  His 
Creation.  The  mischief  was  not  left  to 
stand  alone ;  and  the  promise  of  a  Re- 
deemer from  it  was  immediately  delivered. 
Thus  far,  the  Mosaic  system  helps  us ;  yet, 
in  helping  us,  tells  us  to  look  beyond  itself. 
By  its  system  of  sacrifice  it  threw  into  dis- 
tinct relief  the  idea  that  offence  had  been 
committed,  and  that  our  standing  was  not 
upright  before  God.     Now  with  this  were 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN   OUTLINE. 


127 


associated  in  Genesis  the  further  ideas  that 
from  this  offence  there  would  be  a  way  of 
reconcihation  and  recovery,  and  that  this 
way  would  be  found  in  a  member  of  the 
human  race,  a  portion  of  the  seed  of  the 
woman.  On  these  further  ideas  Mosaism 
so  far  threw  light,  that  it  pointed  through 
sacrifice  to  pardon  ;  but  it  added  nothing  of 
force  or  clearness  to  the  original  promise 
that  this  recovery  should  be  wrought  out 
in  and  through  a  Redeemer  having  the 
form  and  the  nature  of  man.  This  proph- 
ecy of  the  Incarnation,  though  a  vital  por- 
tion of  the  ancient  tradition  of  the  patri- 
archs, did  not  derive  any  supplement  or 
new  enforcement  from  the  construction  of 
the  Hebrew  laws  and  institutions.  It  re- 
mained, and  it  propagated  itself,  mainly  in 
the  Psalms  and  in  the  Prophets,  while  its 
root  was  pre-Mosaic.  Some  rays  of  the  light 
of  that  promise  may  perhaps  be  traced,  out- 
side the  Hebrew  precinct,  in  particular  tra- 
ditions of  the  heathen  world.  There  may 
be  vestiges  of  it  in  that  close  vital  associa- 
tion between  Deity  and  humanity,  which 
marked  the  Greek  or  Olympian  religion  ; 
but  which,  as  the  fundamental  conception 
of  sin  more  and  more  faded  away,  lost  all 
its  moral  force.  Mosaism  did  essential  and 
infinite  service  in  deeply  sculpturing  (so  to 
speak)  the  idea  of  sin  in  the  human  con- 


128       OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF   THE 

sciousness ;  but  it  was  not  favorable  to  that 
theanthropy,  or  union  of  the  Divine  and 
human,  of  which  the  human  side  had  been 
so  strongly  foreshadowed  in  the  original 
charter.  Perhaps  by  the  rigid  prohibition 
of  images,  which  was  so  necessary  for  its 
direct  purpose,  it  rather  tended  to  widen 
the  distance,  at  which  man  stood  as  a  being 
worshipping  his  Maker.  Already  idolatry, 
such  as  prevailed  in  the  East,  was  asso- 
ciated with  the  human  form,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  shutting  out  that  idolatry  may  have 
carried  with  it,  in  this  respect,  a  certain  re- 
ligious incompleteness  as  a  consequence. 

I  now  come  to  the  second  supposition  ; 
and  I  ask  whether  the  selection  of  the  He- 
brew race  was  grounded  on  their  moral 
superiority.  Within  narrow  limits,  the  an- 
swer would  be  affirmative.  They  were  ap- 
pointed to  purge  and  to  possess  the  land  of 
Canaan  on  account  of  the  terrible  and 
loathsome  iniquities  of  its  inhabitants.  The 
nations  whom  they  were  to  subdue  had 
reached  that  latest  stage  of  sensual  iniquity, 
which  respects  neither  God  nor  nature. 
The  sensual  power  within  man,  which  re- 
belled against  him  when  he  had  rebelled 
against  God,  had  in  Canaan  enthroned  its 
lawlessness  as  law,  and  its  bestial  indul- 
gences had  become  recognized,  normal,  nay 
more,  even  religious  and  obligatory.     And 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE. 


129 


there  are  those  in  the  present  day  who,  ad- 
mitting the  facts,  find  in  them  a  subject  of 
pleasurable  contemplation,  as  if  they  simply 
exhibited  an  innocent  and  free  exercise  of 
natural  propensities.  The  propensities  were 
due  indeed  to  nature;  but  only  to  nature  in 
a  condition  of  disorder  and  disease. 

The  vicious  practices  of  these  nations, 
indicated  rather  than  described  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  veiled,  apparently  for  de- 
cency's sake,  in  the  translations,  are  too 
sadly  attested  by  the  character  of  the  re- 
mains, which,  in  later  times,  archaeology 
has  recovered  from  their  hiding-places. 
They  are  also  attested  by  the  poems  of 
Homer.  In  these  poems,  the  Phoenicians 
represent  Syrian  religion,  and  we  find  the 
goddess  Aphrodite,  whose  debased  worship 
it  seems  plain  that  they  were  gradually  im- 
porting into  Greece,  to  have  stood  for  little 
more  than  a  symbol  of  lawless  lust.  This 
is  "Ashtoreth,  the  goddess  of  the  Zido- 
mans.    * 

I  find  it  much  more  difficult  to  answer 
the  question,  whether  the  Hebrew  race  were 
planted  in  the  land  of  promise,  which  flowed 
with  milk  and  honey,  by  reason  of,  or  in 
connection  with,  their  moral  superiority  to 
the  nations  of  the  world  taken  universally. 
It  is,  down  to  the  present  day,  extremely 
*  I  Kings  xi.  5-33. 
9 


I30 


OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF  THE 


difficult  to  make  any  trustworthy  estimate 
of  the  comparative  moral  standing  even  of 
any  two  contemporary  peoples.  It  may  be 
admitted  that  the  form  of  human  nature  has 
with  the  modern  conditions  grown  far  more 
manifold  and  complex.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  answering  the  question  I  have  just 
put,  we  have  the  difficulty  not  only  of  re- 
moteness in  time,  but  of  extreme  scantiness 
of  information. 

I  shall  assume  that  the  mass  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  at  large  were  trained  mainly 
by  Mosaism,  and  little  in  comparison  by  the 
more  highly  spiritual  tradition  conserved 
and  enshrined  within  it.  Speaking  of  these, 
we  may  consider  that  the  Old  Testament 
gives  us  more  than  a  sketch,  if  less  than  a 
picture,  of  their  social  and  moral  state.  I 
am  aware  of  only  one  other  race,  with 
respect  to  which  we  have  any  account  pos- 
sessing a  tolerable  fulness.  That  is  the  race 
of  the  Achaian  Greeks,  painted  with  mar- 
vellous force  as  well  as  completeness  by 
Homer.  The  poet  describes  the  manners 
of  one  generation  ;  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  say  from  Abraham  to  the  Cap- 
tivity, range  over  many.  Still,  numerous 
as  these  are,  they  present  a  considerable 
unity  of  color.  I  carefully  reserve  the  case 
of  that  inner  and  elect  circle  among  the 
Hebrews,  to  whom  we  owe  the  possession 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE.    131 

down  to  this  day  of  inestimable  spiritual 
treasures.  But  comparing,  as  well  as  I  am 
able,  ordinary  or  average  life  among  the 
ordinary  Hebrews  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
ordinary  Greeks  of  Homer  (whom  I  take 
to  have  lived  long  after  Moses,  but  consid- 
erably before  the  age  of  David)  on  the  other, 
I  cannot  discern  that  these  last  were  in  a 
moral  sense  inferior. 

I  am  sensible,  however,  that  in  such  a 
proposition  as  has  just  been  uttered  there 
must  be,  to  the  general  reader,  some  appear- 
ance of  paradox  ;  and  likewise  that  such  an 
appearance  will  not  be  effectually  removed 
by  reference  to  the  Scriptural  complaints  of 
the  stiff  neck,  or  the  hard  heart,  of  the 
Israelites.  I  must  therefore  make  further 
endeavors  to  get  at  the  truth  of  the  case 
before  us. 

I  do  not  feel  that  even  the  patriarchal 
history  is  designed  to  convey  to  us  the  idea 
that  the  privileged  race  stood  uniformly  at 
a  great  moral  elevation,  as  compared  with 
other  and  ordinary  portions  of  mankind. 

The  subject  is  a  painful  one,  and  I  shall 
not  dilate  upon  its  details.  But  it  seems 
undeniable  that,  in  the  history  of  the  selected 
line,  we  find  from  time  to  time  the  develop- 
ment of  wickedness  in  its  extreme  forms. 
Such  are  the  sin  of  Onan,*  the  incest  of 
*  Genesis  xxxviii.  8,  9. 


1^2       OFFICE  AND    IVOR  A'  OF   THE 

the  daughters  of  Lot,*  and  the  brutal  insen* 
sibility  of  Ham,  the  son  of  Noah,  to  the 
claims  of  natural  decency. f  Nor  are  the 
women  exempt,  as  we  learn  from  the  incest 
devised  and  effected  by  Tamar.J  And  the 
wife  of  Lot  cast  a  yearning  look  on  the  hell 
of  Sodom. §  The  first  three  cases,  and  the 
last,  are  not  in  the  line  of  the  ultimate  suc- 
cession ;  but  Pharez,  the  son  of  Tamar,  is 
the  recorded  ancestor  of  King  David  and 
his  descendants.il  Now,  among  the  Acha- 
ian  Greeks  of  Homer  we  find  a  sensitive 
delicacy,  altogether  peculiar,  as  to  all  ex- 
posure of  the  person.  There  is  nowhere 
any  extreme  form  of  sensual  indulgence. 
Among  the  Boeotian  immigrants  from  the 
East,  that  is  from  the  Syrian  coast,  there 
occurred  at  an  early  stage  of  their  history 
in  the  Peninsula,  a  case  of  incest ;  T[  but  it 
was  always  regarded  by  the  indigenous  tra- 
dition as  involuntary,  and  what  is  more,  a 
curse  clave  on  this  account  to  the  race  of 
Kadmos,  and  brought  about  its  early  extinc- 
tion. 

While  incest  is  thus  regarded  as  a  mon- 
strous perversion  of  nature  among  the 
Greeks,  there  are  in  the  Homeric  poems, 
as  I  think,  sufficiently  clear  indications  that 

*  Genesis  xix.  32.  f  Genesis  ix.  22. 

J  Genesis  xxxviii.  6-30.  |  Genesis  xix.  26. 

Ij  Matthew  i.  3-5.  f  Od.  xi.  271-4. 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE. 


133 


it  was  practised  without  shame  anion c^  the 
Phoenicians,*  the  coast-neighbors  of  Syria, 
and  partners  with  it  in  manners,  if  not  also 

^  probably  in  race. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  two  others  among  the 
great  moral  constituents  of  human  charac- 
ter, and  consider  the  case  of  humanity  as 
against  cruelty,  and  of  truth  as  against 
fraud. 

Let  us  take  the  two  cases  first  of  the  de- 
ceit practised  by  Jacob  upon  his  brother 
Esau  and  his  father  Isaac;  secondly,  of  the 
base  and  unnatural  conduct  of  the  sons  of 
Jacob  towards  their  brother  Joseph.  As 
there  is  nothing  recorded  in  favor  of  the 
Homeric  or  Achaian  Greeks  which  ap- 
proaches in  moral  beauty  to  the  forgiveness 
freely  accorded  by  Joseph,  so  there  is 
nothincf  recorded  against  them  which  so 
wickedly  tramples  down  the  laws  of  nature, 
as  the  flagrant  iniquities  to  which  attention 
has  just  been  called.  The  conduct  of  the 
suitors  of  Penelope  in  the  Odyssey,  and  the 
actions  of  Parir.  (a  foreigner),  supply  the 
worst  exhibitions  of  human  nature  which 
come  before  us  in  the  Poems.  Both  there 
and  in  the  Old  Testament  retribution  follows 
guilt,  but  what  I  now  speak  of  is  the  depth 
of  guilt,  not  its  treatment.     There  is  nowhere 

.  in  Homer  a  case,  between  relatives,  of  deceit 
*0d.  X.  7,  and  less  flagrantly,  vii.  64-8. 


134 


OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF   THE 


like  that  of  Jacob,  or  of  cruelty  like  that  of 
his  sons. 

When  we  come  to  the  Palestinian  period, 
it  would  appear  that  the  Israelites  were  sub- 
jected to  a  force  and  diversity  of  tempta- 
tions, such  as  perhaps  no  people  ever  had 
to  encounter.  Successful  war  had  stimu- 
lated their  vindictive  passions.  Triumph 
everywhere  had  waited  on  their  arms. 
They  were  entitled  to  esteem  themselves 
the  directly  chosen  ministers  of  God.  They 
were  likely  to  regard  the  heathen,  among 
whom  they  came,  with  hatred  and  contempt. 
They  passed  from  a  life,  wandering,  uncer- 
tain and  ill  supplied,  to  settlement  and  to 
abundance.  The  temples  or  emblems  of 
seductive  lust  everywhere  met  their  eyes; 
and  the  vile  example,  by  which  they  were 
solicited  in  the  mass  and  in  detail,  pretended 
plausibly  to  hallow  itself  by  close  associa- 
tion with  religion.  There  is  scarcely  an 
evil  passion  that  finds  entrance  into  the 
human  breast  which  was  not  powerfully 
stirred  by  the  circumstances  of  the  Israel- 
itish  conquest.  We  find  in  the  sacred  text 
indications  of  the  severity  of  some  of  their 
temptations.  Take,  for  instance,  Deut.  vi. 
IO-16;  and  again  in  xxxi.  20  it  is  written, 

"  For  when  I  sliall  have  brought  them  into  the  land 
which  I  sware  unto  their  fathers,  that  flovveth  with  milk 
and  honey;  and  they  shall  have  eaten  and  filled  them- 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN   OUTLINE.    135 

selves,  and  waxen  fat;  then  will  they  turn  unto  other 
gods  and  serve  them,  and  provoke  me,  and  break  my 
covenant." 

The  general  indication  seenis  to  be  first 
the  perpetuation  of  a  chosen  seed,  at  the 
very  heart  of  the  nation,  high  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  interior  religion ;  secondly,  a  decided 
ethical  superiority  of  the  Hebrew  line  over 
the  Asiatic  nations  in  their  neighborhood, 
as  indeed  it  was  from  Asia  that  the  extremes 
of  corruption  flowed  into  the  Greek  Penin- 
sula in  the  earliest  historic  times.  Yet  the 
loveliest  picture  of  womanhood  in  all  the 
early  sacred  books  is  that  of  Ruth ;  and 
Ruth  was  of  the  children  of  Moab,  who  was 
the  incestuous  offspring  of  one  of  the 
daughters  of  Lot.* 

Humanit}',  or  mercy,  is  certainly  not  the 
strong  point  of  the  Achaian  Greeks.  With 
them  not  only  no  sacredness,  but  little  value, 
attached  to  human  life ;  and  the  loss  of  it 
stirs  no  sympathy  unless  it  be  associated 
with  beauty,  valor,  patriotism,  or  other 
esteemed  characteristics.  Yet  here,  again, 
the  forms  of  evil  are  less  extreme.  We  do 
not  find,  even  in  the  stern,  relentless  ven- 
geance of  Odysseus  on  his  enemies,  or  in 
the  passionate  wish  of  Achilles  that  nature 
would  permit  what  it  forbade,  namely,  to 
devour  his  hated  foe,  a  form  of  cruelty  and 
*  Genesis  xix.  36-7. 


136 


OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF   THE 


brutality  so  savage  as  is  recorded  in  the 
case  of  the  Levite  with  his  wife  and  concu- 
bine at  Gibeah,  and  of  the  war  which  fol- 
lowed it.* 

The  temptations  of  lust  were  even  more 
formidable,  than  those  of  cruelty  and  re- 
venge. According  to  the  sacred  text,  this 
danger  was  foreseen  from  the  first ;  and  the 
very  earliest  Mosaic  legislation, f  after  that 
of  the  Commandments,  begins  to  denounce 
a  portion  of  the  indescribable  practices  which 
were  rife  among  the  older  occupiers  of  the 
promised  land.  It  was  subsequently  carried 
into  further  particulars,  and  we  know  that, 
down  the  whole  course  of  the  historic  period 
before  the  Captivity,  the  filthy  idolatry  not 
only  encircled  the  chosen  people,  but  at 
times  so  invaded  it,  as  to  reduce  to  a  rem- 
nant the  untainted  portion  of  the  community, 
the  true  worshippers  of  God.  Even  pious 
monarchs  were  sometimes  afraid  to  destroy 
its  constituted,  and  in  a  perverse  sense,  con- 
secrated emblems. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  must  not  view  the 
case  of  the  earliest  Greeks  in  the  spirit  of 
optimism.  War  and  its  devastations  were 
with  them  habitual  and  almost  normal ; 
property  was  little  respected;  cunning,  as 
well  as  skill,  was  sometimes  held  in  honor. 
Yet  it  remains  a  broad  and  indisputable 
*  Judges  xix.-xxi.  -j-  Exodus  xxii.  16, 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE. 


137 


truth  that  honor  and  truth,  as  well  as  valor, 
were  prevailingly  respected,  that  family  ties 
were  very  sacred,  that  the  law  of  nature  was 
simply  and  profoundly  revered,  and  that  the 
extreme  forms  of  vice  and  sin,  the  widest 
and  most  hopeless  departures  from  the  law 
of  God,  are  nowhere  to  be  found  in  any  of 
their  forms. 

Enough  has  perhaps  been  said  to  show 
that  we  cannot  claim  as  a  thing  demonstra- 
ble a  great  moral  superiority  for  the  Hebrew 
line  generally  over  the  whole  of  the  histor- 
ically known  contemporary  races.  This, 
however,  leaves  ample  room  for  the  belief 
that  there  was  an  interior  circle,  known  to 
us  by  its  fruits  in  the  Psalter  and  the  pro- 
phetic books,  of  a  morality  and  sanctity 
altogether  superior  to  what  was  to  be  found 
elsewhere,  and  due  rather  to  the  pre-Mosaic, 
than  to  the  Mosaic,  religion  of  the  race. 
But  it  remains  to  answer  with  reverence  the 
question,  Why,  if  not  for  a  distinctly  superior 
morality,  nor  as  a  full  religious  provision 
for  the  whole  wants  of  man,  zvJiy  was  the 
race  chosen,  as  a  race,  to  receive  the  prom- 
ises, to  guard  the  oracles,  and  eventually, 
to  fulfil  the  hopes,  of  the  great  Redemption  ? 

The  ansvv'er  may,  I  believe,  be  conveyed 
in  moderate  compass.  The  design  of  the 
Almighty,  as  we  everywhere  find,  was  to 
prepare  the  human  race,  by  a  varied  and  a 


138 


OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF  THE 


prolonged  education,  for  the  arrival  of  the 
greatest  epoch  of  history.  The  immediate 
purposes  of  the  Abrahamic  selection  may- 
have  been  to  appoint,  for  the  task  of  pre- 
serving in  the  world  the  fundamental  bases 
of  religion,  a  race,  which  possessed  qualifi- 
cations for  that  end  decisively  surpassing 
those  of  all  other  races.  We  may  easily 
indicate  two  of  these  fundamental  bases. 
The  first  was  the  belief  in  one  God.  The 
second  was  the  knowledge  that  mankind  at 
large  had  departed  from  His  laws ;  without 
which  knowledge  how  should  they  welcome 
a  Deliverer,  whose  object  it  was  to  bring 
them  back  ?  It  may  be  stated  with  confi- 
dence that  among  the  dominant  races  of  the 
world  the  belief  in  one  God  was  speedily 
destroyed  by  polytheism,  and  the  idea  of 
sin  faded  gradually  but  utterly  away.  Is  it 
audacious  to  say  that  what  was  wanted  was 
a  race  so  endowed  with  the  qualities  of 
masculine  tenacity  and  persistency,  as  to 
hold  over  in  safe  custody  these  all-impor- 
tant truths  until  that  fulness  of  time,  when, 
by  and  with  them,  the  complete  design  of 
the  Almighty  would  be  revealed  to  the 
world  ?  A  long  experience  of  trials  beyond 
all  example  has  proved  since  the  Advent 
how  the  Jews,  in  this  one  essential  quality, 
have  all  along  surpassed  every  other  people 
upon  earth.     A    marvellous    and    glorious 


OLD    TESTAMENT  IN  OUTLINE,     i^o 

experience  has  shown  how  among  their 
ancestors  before  the  Advent  were  kept 
ahve  and  in  full  vigor  the  doctrine  of  belief 
in  one  God,  and  the  true  idea  of  sin.  These 
our  Lord,  when  He  came,  found  ready  to 
.His  hand,  essential  pre-conditions  of  His 
teaching.  And,  in  the  exhibition  of  this 
great  and  unparalleled  result  of  a  most 
elaborate  and  peculiar  discipline,  we  may 
perhaps  recognize,  sufficiently  for  the  pres- 
ent purpose,  something  of  the  Office  and 
Work  of  the  Old  Testament. 


The  Psalms. 


The  Psalms. 

I. — THEIR  HISTORIC  PLACE  IN  THE  DEVOTION 
OF  ALL   AGES. 

JOHN  BRIGHT  has  told  me  that  he 
would  be  content  to  stake  upon  the 
Book  of  Psalms,  as  it  stands,  the  great 
question  whether  there  is  or  is  not  a  Divine 
Revelation.  It  was  not  to  him  conceivable 
how  a  work  so  widely  severed  from  all  the 
known  productions  of  antiquity,  and  stand- 
ing upon  a  level  so  much  higher,  could  be 
accounted  for  except  by  a  special  and  ex- 
traordinary aid  calculated  to  produce  special 
and  extraordinary  results  ;  for  it  is  reason- 
able, nay  needful,  to  presume  a  due  corre- 
spondence between  the  cause  and  the  effect. 
Nor  does  this  opinion  appear  to  be  unrea- 
sonable. If  Bright  did  not  possess  the  spe- 
cial qualifications  of  the  scholar  or  the 
critic,  he  was,  I  conceive,  a  very  capable 
judge  of  the  moral  and  religious  elements 
in  any  case  that  had  been  brought  before 
him  by  his  personal  experience. 

(143) 


144 


THE   PSALMS. 


It  was  in  truth  a  noble  distinction  of  the 
Hebrew  race  to  have  produced  persons  im- 
bued with  such  quahties  and  gifts,  as  were 
capable  of  composing  the  Book  of  Psalms. 

Twice  in  his  Epistles  (Eph.  v.  19  ;  Col.  iii. 
16)  does  St.  Paul  admonish  Christians  upon  j 
musical  services  as  a  fitting  vent  for  the  de-  \ 
vout    mind  and  heart.     In   both    cases    he  ^ 
employs  the  same  phraseology,  and  enjoins 
the  use  of  "  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs,"  each   time  giving  the  first  place  in 
the  enumeration  to  Psalms.     I  find  it  diffi- 
cult to   dismiss   the   idea  that  in  this  word 
the  use  of  the   Psalter  was  either   intended 
or    included  ;  especially  as  there  are  early 
testimonies    to    the    effect    that    antiphonal 
singing  was  in  use   from  the  origin   of  the 
Church.* 

Upon  the  most  superficial  survey  of  the 
Psalms  in  their  general  aspect,  it  seems  dif- 
ficult or  impossible  to  regard  them  as  simply 
owing  their  parentage  to  the  Mosaic  system. 
Some,  indeed,  of  their  features  may  well  be 
referred  to  it ;  especially  the  strong  sense 
of  national  unity  which  they  display,  and 
the  concentration  ofthat  sense  upon  a  single 
centre,  the  city  of  Jerusalem  and  the  temple. 

It  may  also  be  noted  that  the  Mosaic  law 
inculcated  in  its  utmost  breadth  the  princi- 

*  As  to  the  last-named    point,  see  Wordsworth   and 
Alford,  in  loco. 


THE   PSALMS. 


145 


pie  of  love  to  God.  "Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might."  *  Yet 
may  it  not  be  said,  from  the  place  in  which 
it  occurs,  that  this  is  rather  exhortation  than 
statute?  Further,  it  is  not  unfolded  in  the 
detail  of  the  legislative  Torah ;  and,  even 
in  the  Decalogue,  service  is  enjoined  with- 
out the  mention  of  love.  The  early  books 
do  not  exhibit,  like  the  Psalter,  the  close, 
inner  contact  of  the  individual  soul  with  the 
Deity ;  and,  as  water  does  not  rise  above 
the  source,  it  is  hard  to  ascribe  to  them 
alone  the  wonderful  development  of  that 
principle  which  pervades  the  body  of  this 
unparalleled  collection.  We  seem  com- 
pelled to  assume  for  them  some  loftier 
fountain-head  of  instruction.  This,  I  would 
submit,  is  in  part  supplied,  and  in  part  sug- 
gested, by  the  Book  of  Genesis.  I  say 
suggested,  inasmuch  as  the  outlines  of  a 
primeval  religion  drawn  in  that  book  are 
not  less  slight  than  they  are  significant.  So 
slight,  indeed,-  that  I  have  been  unable  to 
resist  the  impression  that  there  were  sup- 
plementary communications  of  Divine  truth, 
•over  and  above  those  contained  in  Holy 
Writ,  and  perhaps  traceable,  here  and  there, 
in  later  portions  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
of  the  Apocryphal  Books.  And  I  also  say 
*  Deut.  vi.  4,  s. 
10 


146 


THE   PSALMS. 


supplied,  inasmuch  as  the  story  of  the  Fall 
involves  in  full  the  idea  of  our  restoration, 
in  character  as  well  as  condition,  which  is 
nowhere  enunciated  in  the  Law ;  and 
further,  inasmuch  as  it  sets  forth,  at  least 
down  to  the  time  of  Abraham,  a  personal 
intercourse,  habitual  and  direct,  with  the 
Deity,  and  one  pointing  onwards  to  the 
great  Redemption. 

In  a  preceding  essay  I  have  represented 
that  the  Mosaic  law  was  not  the  promulga- 
tion of  a  new  and  complete  religion,  but  a 
code  of  provisions  intended  for  the  particu- 
lar purpose  (i)  of  building  up  a  wall  of 
effectual  separation  between  the  Jewish  com- 
munity, and  the  corruption  of  the  nations 
whose  land  they  were  to  conquer  and  to 
possess ;  and  (2)  of  preserving  in  vitality 
and  freshness,  within  that  precinct,  the  fun- 
damental conceptions  of  the  Divine  unity  and 
righteousness,  and  of  the  duty  and  the  sin- 
fulness of  man.  These  all-important  propo- 
sitions were  the  necessary  pre-conditions  of 
any  plan  for  the  restoration  of  peace  in  a 
disordered  world.  But  thev  were,  never- 
theless,  in  process  of  extirpation  from  the 
general  and  public  religion  of  all  those 
Gentile  races,  whose  history  is  given  us  in 
Scripture,  or  in  the  classical  books  of  pro- 
fane antiquity. 

Thus   the  Mosaic  system,  while  it  was 


THE   PSALMS. 


147 


defensive  against  the  surrounding  iniquity, 
was  also  something  more,  and  something 
higher.  That  system,  both  institutional  and 
doctrinal,  fenced  in,  as  it  were,  a  clear  space, 
a  free  and  secure  domain,  for  the  fuller 
development  of  a  religion,  inward  and  per- 
sonal, devotional  and  spiritual,  the  materials 
for  which  it  could  hardly  have  supplied  by 
presenting,  as  it  did,  God  as  ruler  and  judge, 
and  man  as  a  servant  who  continually  either 
sinned,  or  was  on  the  brink  of  falling  into 
sin. 

In  the  inner  sanctuary,  thus  provided  for 
the  most  capable  human  souls,  was  reared 
the  strong  spiritual  life,  which  appears  to 
have  developed  itself  pre-eminently  in  the 
depth,  richness,  tenderness,  and  comprehen- 
siveness of  the  Psalms.  To  the  work  they 
have  here  accomplished,  there  is  no  parallel 
upon  earth.  For  the  present  I  put  aside  all 
details,  and  am  content  to  stand  upon  this 
fact — that  a  compilation,  which  began  (at 
the  latest)  with  a  shepherd  of  Palestine, 
three  thousand  years  ago,  has  been  the 
prime  and  paramount  manual  of  devotion 
from  that  day  to  this  ;  first  for  the  Hebrew 
race,  both  in  its  isolation,  and  after  it  was 
brought,  by  the  translation  of  its  sacred 
books,  into  relations  with  the  Gentile  world  ; 
and  then  for  all  the  Christian  races,  in  all 
their    diversities   of  character  and    circum- 


148  THE  PSALMS. 

stance.  Further,  that  there  is  now,  if  pos- 
sible, less  chance  than  ever  of  the  displace- 
ment of  these  marvellous  compositions  from 
their  supremacy  in  the  worship  of  the 
Christian  church.  And  beyond  doubt  it 
may  be  also  said  that  their  function  has  not 
been  one  of  ritual  pomp  and  outward  power 
alone.  They  have  dwelt  in  the  Christian 
heart,  and  at  the  very  centre  of  that  heart ; 
and  wherever  the  pursuits  of  the  inner  life 
have  been  most  largely  conceived  and  culti- 
vated, there,  and  in  the  same  proportion,  the 
Psalms  have  towered  over  every  other  vehi- 
cle of  general  devotion.  We  have  a  con- 
spicuous illustration  of  their  office  in  the 
fact  that  of  two  hundred  and  forty-three 
actual  citations  from  the  Old  Testament 
found  in  the  pages  of  the  New,  no  less  than 
one  hundred  and  sixteen  are  from  the  single 
Book  of  Psalms  ;  and  that  a  similar  propor- 
tion holds  with  most  of  the  early  Fathers.* 
Bishop  Alexander  has  published  the  result 
of  a  careful  examination  made  by  himself 
It  is,  that  reference  is  made  to  the  Psalms^ 

*  Canon  Cook,  in  the  Speaker's  Bible,  vol.  iv.  p.  146. 
There  is  a  minor,  but  still  not  unmeaning,  indication  to 
the  same  effect,  which  it  would  be  unseemly  to  couple 
with  that  given  in  the  te.xt,  but  which  I  venture  to  name 
for  its  recency,  and  because  it  is  eminently  associated 
■with  the  general  course  of  modern  life.  In  a  manual, 
not  of  hymns,  hut  of  devotions  prepared  for  public  use  in 
the  mixed  congregations  on  board  a  great  line  of  packet 


THE   PSALMS.  j^q 

either  by  quotation  or  otherwise,  in  no 
fewer  than  two  hundred  and  eighty-six  pas- 
sages of  the  New  Testament.* 

We  have  thus  before  us  the  fact  that  the 
Psalms,  composed  for  the  pubhc  worship 
of  the  Hebrews  from  two  to  three  thousand 
years  ago,  constitute  down  to  the  present 
day  for  Christians  the  best  and  highest  book 
of  devotion.  A  noteworthy  fact  even  on 
the  surface  of  it;  more  noteworthy  still, 
when  we  go  below  the  surface  into  the 
meaning.  The  Hebrews  were  Semitic, 
Christendom  is  (chiefly)  Aryan  ;  the  He- 
brews were  local,  Christendom  is  world- 
wide ;  the  Hebrews  were  often  tributary,  and 
finally  lost  their  liberties  and  place  among 
the  nations  ;  Christianity  has  mounted  over 
every  obstacle,  and  has  long  been  the 
dominating  power  of  the  world.  The  He- 
brews had  no  literature  outside  their  re- 
ligion, nor  any  Fine  Art ;  Christendom  has 
appropriated,  and  even  rivalled,  both  the 
literature  and  the  art  of  the  greatest  among 
the  ancients.  This  strange  book  of  Hebrew 
devotions  had  no  attraction  outside  Hebrew- 
ism, except  for  Christians  ;  and    Christians 

ships  from  Great  Britain  to  North  America,  I  find  that, 
out  of  254  pages,  137  are  occupied  by  selections  from  the 
Psalms;  the  chief  part  of  the  remainder  being  a  collec- 
tion of  hymns. 

*  "  The  Witness  of  the  Psalms."      Note  A,  p.  291. 


ISO 


THE  PSALMS. 


have  found  nothing  to  gather,  in  the  same 
kind,  from  any  of  the  other  rehgions  in  the 
world.  The  stamp  of  continuity  and 
identity  has  been  set  upon  one,  and  one 
only,  historic  series ;  one  and  one  only, 
thread  runs  down  through  the  whole  suc- 
cession of  the  ages ;  and,  among  many 
witnesses  to  this  continuity,  the  Psalms  are 
probably  among  the  most  conspicuous. 
This  stamp  purports  to  be,  and  to  have 
been  all  along.  Divine  ;  and  the  unparalleled 
evidence  of  results  all  goes  to  show  that  it 
is  not  a  forgery. 

The  wonderful  phenomenon  thus  present- 
ed to  us  can  hardly  be  said  to  admit  of  en- 
hancement ;  and  yet  it  is,  perhaps,  enhanced, 
when  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  long  period 
of  this  perpetual  youth,  exhibited  by  the 
Psalms,  has  been  one  broken  by  the  promul- 
gation of  a  new  religion,  together  with  all 
the  changes  of  fact,  and  developments  of 
principle,  which  transformed  the  heathen 
world. 

Moreover,  we  should  remember  that  the 
shapings  of  all  language  merely  human 
are  essentially  shortlived,  and  forms  of 
speech  succeed  one  another  as  wave  follows 
upon  wave.  But  herein  seems  probably  to 
lie  one  of  the  ways  in  which  the  Divine 
revelation  asserts  itself  It  appears  to  have 
the  faculty  of  giving  to  things  mutable  the 


THE   PSALMS.  151 

privilege  and  the  power  of  the  immutable, 
and  to  endow  fashions  of  speech,  when 
they  belong  to  the  heart's  core  of  human 
nature,  with  a  charter  that  is  to  endure 
throughout  all  time. 

I  submit,  then,  that  the  fact  of  so  won- 
derful a  power  as  was  thus  exercised  by  the 
Psalms,  in  such  diversities  of  time,  race,  and 
circumstances,  is  not  only  without  parallel, 
but  is  removed  by  such  a  breadth  of  space 
from  all  other  facts  of  human  experience  in 
the  same  province,  as  to  constitute  in  itself  a 
strong  presumption  that  the  cause  also  is 
one  lying  beyond  the  range  of  ordinary 
human  action,  and  may  most  reasonably  be 
set  down  as  consisting  in  that  specialty  of 
Divine  suggestion  and  guidance,  which  we 
term  revelation. 

II. THEIR     ANTIQUITY. 

The  antiquity  of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  like 
that  of  the  other  books  of  Scripture,  does  not 
directly  or  necessarily  involve  the  essence  of 
the  case  concerning  them,  which  I  appre- 
hend is  more  dependent  upon  their  character 
and  their  results.  Yet  it  counts,  for  im- 
portance, in  the  next  order  of  considerations, 
since  the  form  and  substance  are  here  more 
intimately  allied  than  in  the  terms  used  for 
the  rdcital  of  events  in  an  historical  book. 


152 


THE  PSALMS. 


It  is  also  to  be  assumed  that  the  inces- 
sant use  of  the  Psahiis  in  the  service  of 
the  temple,  and  the  comparatively  wide 
knowledge  of  them  thus  conveyed  to  the 
people,  were  in  the  nature  of  special  se- 
curities for  their  faithful  and  exact  trans- 
mission. 

When  we  speak  of  the  Psalms  of  David, 
we  use  a  popular  and  general  form  of  ex- 
pression, which  names  the  whole  from  the 
largest  or  most  weighty,  and,  originally, 
most  conspicuous,  of  the  parts.  The  phrase 
is  sufficiently  shown  not  to  be  absolute  and 
precise  by  the  beautiful  137th  Psalm,  which 
describes  the  condition  of  the  Hebrews  in 
Babylon,  five  centuries  after  the  death  of 
the  minstrel  King.  Seventy-three  Psalms* 
in  all  are  ascribed  to  him.  This  is  not 
the  assumption  or  opinion  of  conservative 
writers  only.  Bleek,  whose  work  is-  re- 
vised and  sanctioned  by  VVeyiiausen,  admits 
it  to  be  a  matter  of  the  highest  probability 
that  no  inconsiderable  number  of  the  Psalms 
are  due  to  his  authorship. f  He  also,  with 
others,  largely  accepts  the  inscriptions 
which  are  prefixed  to  them.  According 
to  Canon  Cook,  a  judicious  and  able  writer, 
it  was   never  held   that  the    entire   Psalter 

*  Cook's  Introduction,  p.  150. 

f  "  Einleitung  in  das  alte  Testament  .     .      .  besorgt 
von  J.  Wellhausen."     Sect.  221.      Berlin,  18S6.' 


THE   PSALMS. 


153 


was  the  work  of  the  King  ;  and  he  says 
that,  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  the 
completion  of  the  Book  was  ascribed  to 
Nehemiah.  He  thinks  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  two  closing  books  (out  of  the 
five  Books  composing  the  Psalter)  belong 
to  the  period  of  or  following  the  Exile.* 
But  of  the  three  Psalms  most  pointedly 
referable  to  the  Messiah,  two  (xxii.,  ex.)  are 
Davidic.  He  shows  how  the  conclusive 
objections  to  the  theory  which  refers  the 
Psalms  to  the  Maccabean  age  are  sustained 
by  various  advanced  German  writers,  and 
Bleek  holds  that  no  Psalm  can  be  shown  to 
be  later  than  Nehemiah.  But  the  master 
idea  of  the  whole  argument  is  not  so  much 
that  such  and  such  Psalms  were  produced 
at  such  and  such  an  era,  as  that  the  Book 
at  large  is  the  product  of  that  influence 
which  stamps  it,  like  the  other  books  of 
Holy  Scripture,  as  embodying  a  Divine 
revelation. 

On  this  point  of  antiquit}^  it  is  more  than 
enough  if  a  large  portion  of  the  Psalms 
are  ascribable  to  King  David.  I  venture, 
however,  to  offer  two  suggestions.  First, 
the  Psalms  come  to  us  through  a  channel 
supplied  by  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  not  the 
kingdom  of  Israel.    If  they  had  been  largely 

*  Cook's  Introduction,  p.  156.     The  Books  are  Psalms 
i.-xli..  xlii.-lxxii.,  Ixxiii.-lxxxix.,  xc.-cvi.,  cvii.-cl. 


154 


THE   PSALMS. 


composed  after  the  severance  of  the  ten 
tribes  from  the  two,  would  they  not  have 
presented  some  more  definite  indication  of 
that  severance  ?  Now,  the  name  of  Israel 
is  the  name,  under  which  in  the  Psalms  the 
chosen  people  are  described.  We  have 
this  name  repeated  twenty-six  times.  The 
name  of  Judah  was  likely,  it  may  be  sup- 
posed, after  the  schism,  to  become  the  pre- 
vailing and  distinctive  name.  It  would  so 
continue  after  the  captivity  and  dispersion 
of  the  ten  tribes,  and  as  long  as  their  rem- 
nants continued  to  maintain  any  serious  and 
systematic  rivalry  with  the  southern  king- 
dom. Yet,  throughout  the  Psalter,  we 
never  find  the  name  of  Judah  mentioned  in 
this  paramount  sense.  Jerusalem  is  men- 
tioned seventeen  times,  and  Sion  thirty- 
eight,  together  fifty-five  times.  But  the 
name  of  Judah  only  occurs  ten  times,  and 
never  with  this  paramount  significance.  It 
is  mentioned  either  together  with  Israel 
(Ps.  Ixxvi.  I  ;  cxiv.  2),  or  in  conjunction 
with  other  tribes,  as  with  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh  in  Ps.  Ix.  7,  and  cviii.  8,  or  with 
Sion  ;  but  always  locally  or  tribally.  Could 
this  have  been  so,  if  the  Psalms  had  mainly 
been  composed  when  Judah  was  the  only 
acknowledged  name  for  the  elect  people, 
and  Israel  was  a  stranger,  often  an  enemy, 
always  the  symbol  of  a  rival  and  apparently, 


THE   PSALMS. 


155 


from  the  character  of  its  priesthood,*  a  de- 
graded worship  ? 

Secondly  :  the  one  great  dehverance  com- 
memorated in  the  Psalms  (as  also,  I  under- 
stand, in  the  later  Jewish  Liturgies),  is  the 
deliverance  from  Egypt.  See,  for  example, 
Psalms  Ixviii.,  Ixxii.,  Ixxx.,  Ixxxi.,  cv.,  cvi., 
cxiv.,  cxxxv.,  cxxxvi.  Could  this  have 
been  the  case,  if  the  Book  was  unknown 
until  the  time  when,  between  the  people  and 
their  earlier  past,  there  arose  up  a  frightful 
spectre  ?  I  refer  to  the  terrible  experience 
of  the  Captivity  in  Babylon. 

And  yet,  surely,  there  were  incidents 
attendant  upon  that  Captivity,  which  might 
have  carved  upon  the  Jewish  mind  recollec- 
tions yet  deeper  in  some  respects  than  those 
of  Egypt.  In  that  country,  if  their  treatment 
had  been  cruel  and  degrading,  yet  they 
must  upon  the  whole  have  flourished,  inas- 
much as  they  grew  there  from  a  family  into 
a  people.  But  the  Babylonish  captivity 
entailed,  firstly,  the  loss  of  what  was  not 
only  an  ancestral  home,  but  the  local  seat 
of  the  Divine  promise  to  their  race;  sec- 
ondly, the  loss  of  the  worship  divinely  or- 
dained, and  attached  to  the  temple  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  thirdly,  the  loss  of  the  kingly  line, 
and  of  that  prized  nationality,  in  and  by 
which   they  were   preferred  before   all  the 

*  I  Kings  xii.  31 ;  xiii.  33. 


156  THE  PSALMS. 

nations  of  the  earth.  Is  it  then  conceivable, 
if  the  Psalms  in  general  owed  their  origin 
to  the  time  of  the  Captivity,  that  the  com- 
posers of  them  should,  in  numerous  and 
conspicuous  cases,  have  dwelt  so  long  and 
so  often  on  the  details  of  the  Egyptian 
bondage,  and  should  never  but  once  and 
briefly  have  made  reference,  specific  indeed 
but  narrow,  to  the  one  recent  catastrophe, 
choosing  rather  to  go  back  to  the  centuries 
dimmed,  in  comparison,  by  the  interval  of  a 
thousand  years  ? 

It  seems  more  than  possible  that  this  argu- 
ment may  be  decisively  supported  by  that 
portion  of  the  Book  of  Jeremiah,  which  dis- 
tinctly prophesies,  not  long  before  the  Cap- 
tivity, that  a  time  is  coming  when  the  servi- 
tude in  Egypt  shall  cease  to  be  the  one  com- 
manding recollection  of  the  Hebrews,  and  its 
place  shall  be  taken  by  the  Exile  in  Babylon. 

"  Therefore,  behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the   Lord, 
that  it   shall   no    more  be  said,  The  Lord  liveth,  that 
brought  up  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt ; 

"  But,  the  Lord  liveth,  that  brought  up  the  children 
of  Israel  from  the  land  of  the  north,  and  from  all  the 
lands  whither  he  had  driven  them:  and  I  will  bring  them 
again  into  their  land  that  I  gave  unto  their  fathers."  * 

The    arguments,    drawn    from     general 
features    and    from    historical    probability, 
*  Jer.  xvi.  14,  15. 


THE   PSALMS.  157 

respecting  the  antiquity  of  the  Books  of  the 
Old  Testament,  are  in  some  degree  common 
to  the  Torah,  or  Books  of  Moses,  and  the 
Psahiis.  The  Psahiis  have,  however,  the 
benefit  of  the  admission  I  have  cited  from 
the  leader  of  the  negative  school  in  our  own 
day,  that  a  considerable  number  are  prob- 
ably from  the  pen  of  David.  And  there  are 
also  points  in  which  reasoning,  available  to 
show  the  antiquity  of  the  Torah,  has  an 
enhanced  force  for  the  Psalms. 

We  see,  for  example,  that  the  history  of 
the  Israelites,  from  the  conquest  of  Canaan 
to  the  Captivity,  is  upon  the  whole  a  history 
of  a  decaying  faith.     This  is   exhibited   in 
the   original    demand  for  the  change  to  a 
monarchy  from  that  earlier  form  of  govern- 
ment   by    Judges,    which    powerfully    sug- 
gested the  presence  and  providence  of  the 
Almighty,  by  leaving  unoccupied  the  place 
upon  earth   most   symbolical   of   Him.     It 
■was  shown  by  the  increased  wickedness  of 
the  kings,  and  by  the  enlarged  and  devel- 
oped   office    of   the    Prophets.     For   these 
■were  like  an  army  of  reserve  in  support  of 
the  Divine  dispensation,  which  takes  its  posi- 
tion on  the  field  of  battle  in  the  hour  of  need. 
It  is  also  observed  by  Sack,*  that  in  the 

*  "  Die  altjiidische  Religion  im  iibergange  vom  Bibel- 
thume  zum  Talmudismus,  von  Israel  Sack."  Berlin, 
1889.     Einleitung,  pp.  13,  seqq. 


158 


THE  PSALMS. 


period  succeeding  the  exile  the  original 
creative  force  of  the  Hebrew  spirit  died  out, 
and  that,  as  formahsni  advanced,  the  secta- 
rian hues  of  party  were  sharpened  and 
deepened.  In  both  these  tracts  of  history, 
the  spirit  and  voice  of  the  Book  of  Psalms 
throw  us  back  upon  antiquity,  and  even 
upon  a  distant  antiquity.  They  seem  to  be 
manifestly  the  product  as  of  a  school,  so 
probably  of  an  age,  of  living,  energetic  faith. 
And  they  are  not  less  eminently  notable 
for  the  harmony  which  pervades  the  religious 
community.  "Jerusalem  is  built  as  a  city, 
that  is  at  unity  in  itself"  * 


III. — THEIR  CONTENTS. 

Let  us  now  look  for  a  moment  at  the 
contents  of  this  Book,  which  are  such  as  to 
fasten  our  wonder  upon  them,  and  to  leave 
httle  room  for  any  surprise  that  they  should 
have  established  for  themselves,  in  collective 
worship  and  in  personal  devotion,  the  place 
to  which  no  parallel  is  elsewhere  to  be 
found  in  the  experience  of  the  human  race. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  I  shall  not  fail  to 
notice  in  their  proper  place  the  objections 
which  some  have  urged  against  the  Book 
of  Psalms. 

*  Psalm  cxxii.  3. 


THE  PSALMS. 


159 


The  multiplication  of  divinities  under  the 
system  which  we  term  polytheism,  had 
tended  to  establish  everywhere  a  system  of 
what  are  termed  national  gods.  These  act 
within  the  sphere  of  a  particular  race  or 
country:  they  are  open  to  the  competition 
of  other  deities,  when  through  migration  or 
conquest  these  spheres  happen  to  overlap. 
They  do  not  claim  the  allegiance  of  other 
races,  or  show  care  or,  so  to  speak,  respon- 
sibility, for  their  welfare. 

I  do  not  indeed  deny,  but  should  be 
forward  to  assert,  that  while,  in  the  early 
stages  of  historic  antiquity,  this  nationalizing 
process  seems  to  harden  more  and  more 
with  the  gradual  accretions  of  legendary  tra- 
dition, we  can  trace  among  the  mythologies, 
in  various  degrees  of  faintness  or  clearness, 
the  older  idea  of  a  supreme  God;  of  a  belief 
in  one  Ruler  of  the  universe,  anterior  and 
superior  to  these  multiform  powers.  We 
find  in  many  cases  disguised  resemblances 
of  that  original  belief;  but  it  is  most  com- 
monly with  such  dislocation  of  its  elements, 
such  exaggerations,  such  intrusion  of  ideas 
foreign  to  it,  as  to  defy  all  attempts,  at  least 
in  the  present  state  of  knowledge,  to  ascend 
the  channel  upwards  to  the  source.  The 
schemes  become  so  complex,  as  to  defy  any 
rational  account  of  the  original  deviation: 
even  when  their  basis  is  found  to  lie  in  the 


l6o  1'^^   PSALMS. 

several  powers  of  external  nature,  which 
were  not  known  to  be  connected  by  any- 
common  tie,  but  which  received  the  names 
of  gods,  and  were  combined  into  religious 
systems.  These  popular  gods  became  reali- 
ties in  two  senses;  first,  subjectively,  be- 
cause as  they  were  accepted  in  the  minds  of 
men,  the  associations  connected  with  them 
became  a  source  and  spring  of  human  action; 
secondly,  because  the  images,  under  which 
they  came  to  be  represented,  gave  them  a 
real  existence  at  least  in  the  material  sphere. 
It  is,  therefore,  natural  that  the  Psalms,  in 
phrases  concerning  deity,  should  not  be  con- 
fined to  the  One  God,  but  should  say,  for  ex- 
ample, that  among  the  gods  there  is  none 
like  Him,  or  should  exhort  the  worshippers 
to  give  thanks  unto  the  God  of  gods.* 

Yet  no  reader  of  the  Psalms  can  fail  to 
see  that  they  are  strictly,  unconditionally, 
and  exclusively  monotheistic.  God  is  un- 
doubtedly the  God  of  Israel,  and  the  wor- 
shippers properly  describe  Him  in  the  terms, 
which  most  closely  correspond  with  His 
relation  to  themselves.  There  seems  to  be 
a  great  mixture  of  the  terms  of  Elohim  and 
Jehovah,  and  in  none  of  the  five  Books  is 
the  use  of  the  properly  Hebrew  name  exclu- 
sive.f     But,  without  drawing  any  argument 

*  Ps.  Ixxxvi.  8  ;  cxxxvi.  2.     See  Exodus  xv.  II. 
•j-  Cook's  Introd.,  p  149. 


THE   PSALMS.  i6r 

from  this  intermixture,  the  Psahns  make  it 
plain  that  the  God  whom  they  adore  is  from 
everlasting,  and  is  the  God,  not  of  Palestine, 
but  of  the  whole  world:  "Sing  unto  God, 
O  ye  kingdoms  of  the  earth ;  O  sing  praises 
unto  the  Lord ;  who  sitteth  in  the  heavens 
over  all  from  the  beginning."  *  And  His 
eye  and  care  are  over  all  men.  "  O  praise 
the  Lord  all  ye  heathen:  praise  Him  all  ye 
nations.  For  His  merciful  kindness  is  ever 
more  and  more  towards  us;  and  the  truth 
of  the  Lord  endureth  for  ever."  f 

No  doubt  the  "  Lord"  is  represented  as 
having  special  relations  with  and  special 
care  for  Israel.  But  these  are  relations  of 
affection,  not  of  exclusion.  A  Psalm  de- 
clares indeed — 

"  He  shall  choose  out  an  heritage  for  us ;  even  the 
worship  of  Jacob,  whom  he  loved." 

But   the    very    same    Psalm    had    already 
sounded  the  trumpet  note — 

"O  clap  your  hands  together,  all  ye  people;  O  sing 
unto  God  with  the  voice  of  melody :  for  the  Lord  is 
high,  and  to  be  feared;  He  is  the  great  king  upon  all  the 
earth."  % 

Among  the  notes,  then,  of  the  supreme 
position  of  the  Psalms,  and  of  the  religion 
to  which  they  belonged,  we  find  this  idea 
of  the  one  God,  who  is  also  the  universal 

*  Ps.  Ixviii.  32-3.     f  Ps.  cxvii.     %  Ps.  xlvii.  4,  and  1-2. 
II 


1 52  THE   PSALMS. 

God,  and  the  universal  Governor  of  men,  and 
who  thereby  stands  broadly  distinguished 
from  what  we  find  to  be  the  character  of 
the  polytheistic  systems  and  of  their  heads; 
namely,  divinity  restrained  by  limits  of  the 
races  or  countries  of  antiquity. 

But  the  form  of  the  Almighty,  thus  di- 
vested of  the  limitations  of  mere  nationality, 
and  exhibited  in  the  majesty  of  perfect 
Oneness  and  Omnipotence,  revealed  itself 
through  the  Psalms  in  other  and  more  tender 
aspects.  His  care  for  the  poor  and  for  the 
stranger  might  be  learned  from  the  books 
of  the  law,  and  may  be  traced  in  other  re- 
ligions among  the  remnants  of  true  Theism, 
Still,  that  is  a  function  of  government  only, 
though  of  benevolent  government,  and  it  is 
compatible  with  the  idea  of  immeasurable 
remoteness.  But  in  the  Psalms  is  developed 
with  singular  force  and  beauty  the  idea  of 
Omnipotence  in  the  attitude  of  nearness  to 
man  :  and,  more  conspicuously  still,  of  near- 
ness to  the  individual  man.  In  Heaven, 
and  in  the  Underworld,  and  at  the  extremi- 
ties of  earth,  "  even  there  also  shall  Thy 
hand  lead  me,  and  Thy  right  hand  shall 
hold  me."  * 

The  presence  thus  brought  near  is  not,  as 

in   Exodus.t  a  consuming,  but  a  soothing 

and     sustaining    presence.  |     When      thus 

*Ps.  cxxxix.  6-9.     f  Chap.  xix.  12,  13,  21.     J  Ps.  xxiii. 


THE   PSALMS.  163 

brought  near,  the  Almighty  is  invested  in 
relation  to  us  with   all   those  capacities  of 
action  and  of  sympathy,  which  fill  inhuman 
1  nature  the  department  of  the  affections.     In 
'  the  mouth  of  the  objector,  this  is   termed 
anthropomorphism.     I  do  not  presume  to 
say    that  there   is  not   in    it    some    prefig- 
uration   of  the   Messiah,  made   in  all  such 
things  like  as  we  are.     But  that  there  is  no 
deflection   from   the  loftiness  of  the  mono- 
theistic idea   we   know  from  this,  that  the 
same   people,  who    gave    utterance    to  the 
Psalms,  have  been  the  most,  rigid  and  lofty 
in  their    definitions   of  the    Godhead.     As 
when  it  is  said  by   Maimonides  that  with 
God  "there   is    neither    folly  nor  wisdom, 
like  the  wisdom   of  a  wise    man  ;  neither 
sleep    nor     waking ;     neither     anger    nor 
laughter;  neither  joy  nor  sorrow;   neither 
silence   nor   speech,  like  the  speech  of  the 
sons  of  men."  *     Yet  it   is   He  that  is   not 
only  the  guardian  of  His  people,  but  as  it 
were  their  sentinel ;  and  not  of  His  people 
only,  but  of  every  one  among  them,  as  truly 
and  as  much  as  of  the  whole.     In  truth,  the 
two    threads    of  national    and    of  personal 

*  Maimonides,  "  Yad  Hachazakah."  Transl.  Ber- 
nard, Camhridije,  1832,  p.  39.  Declarations  not  less  re- 
markable are  to  be  found  in  the  More  Ne/utc/iim,  or 
"  Guide  of  the  Perplexed."  See  also  ihe  work  of  Dr. 
Ginsburg  on  the  Kabbala,  pp.  87-9  (London,  Longmans, 
1864). 


164  THE   PSALMS. 

Providence  are  so  intertwined  in  the  Psalms 
that  they  scarcely  can  be  severed.  "  He 
will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to  be  moved,  and 
He  that  helpeth  thee  will  not  sleep;"  and 
then  in  the  very  next  verse,  by  a  transition 
not  less  gentle  than  complete, "  Behold,  He, 
that  keepeth  Israel,  shall  neither  slumber 
nor  sleep."  There  is  no  detail  too  minute 
for  describing  the  closeness  of  this  protec- 
tion :  "  He  is  thy  defence  upon  thy  right 
hand  ;  "  "  The  Lord  shall  preserve  thy  go- 
ing out  and  thy  coming  in  :  from  this  time 
forth  for  evermore."  *  But  no  mere  selec- 
tion can  rightly  convey  a  picture  of  the 
close  and  intimate  care,  which  this  and  so 
many  others  of  the  Psalms  describe  in  set- 
ting forth  the  attitude  of  the  Almighty  to- 
wards His  worshippers. 

I  will  not  quit  this  portion  of  the  subject 
without  quoting  a  remarkable  testimony  to 
the  elevation  of  the  Psalter  from  a  recent 
critic  generally  negative,  but  one  who 
makes  his  affirmative  declarations  with  an 
exemplary  sincerity  and  fervor.  He  speaks 
of  the  Psalter  as  follows :  "  It  is,  as  a 
whole,  the  expression  and  fruit  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Jewish  religion,  as  they  existed 
in  the  minds  of  pious  Israelites.  Its  one 
great  theme  is  the  clinging  of*  the  human 
spirit  to  God.  In  joy  and  sorrow,  in  victory 
*  Ps.  cxxi.  3,  4,  5,  8. 


THE   PSALMS. 


165 


and  defeat,  in  moods  of  saintliness  or  sin, 
the  spirit  of  the  poor  earthly  wayfarer  here 
pours  out  its  plaint  and  prayer  to  the  God 

of  its   life What  exultation  is  here,, 

for  high  days  of  victory  and  joy  !  What . 
touching  moans  of  penitence  !  VVhat  child- 
like cries  for  help !  What  entreaties  from 
the  soul  that  can  only  say,  '  out  of  the 
depths  I  have  cried  unto  Thee ! '  What 
deligrhtful  confidences  between  the  trustful 
spirit,  and  the  Shepherd  who  leadeth  by 
the  green  pastures  and  the  still  waters  !  "  * 
I  must  not  altogether  pass  by  the  Mes- 
sianic Psalms.  These  are  the  songs  which 
show,  by  the  adaptation  of  their  language 
to  Him  and  to  His  office,  either  that  their 
composers  had  a  prevision  of  His  com- 
ing, or  that  such  prevision  was  conveyed 
into  their  strain  by  the  higher  influence 
which  prompted  it.  It  is  not  necessary  here 
to  debate  their  number.  Suffice  it  to  specify 
Psalms  ii.,  xxi.,  xxii.,  xlv.,  Ixxii.,  ex.  And  it 
is  sufficiently  plain  that  the  principle  of  pro- 
phecy, which  is  involved  in  them,  whether 
conscious  or  unconscious  to  the  composer, 
is  the  same  which  belongs  to  the  other  pre- 
dictions and  prcfigurations  in  the  books  of 
the  Old  Testament.  But  they  differ  from, 
and  go  beyond,  the  rest  in  this  important 
particular.     The  primitive  religion  descends 

*  Seven  Lectures  by  the  Rev.  J.  P.  IIopps;  vii.  p.  33. 


J 56  THE   PSALMS. 

through  them,  as  it  were  by  an  inner  con- 
duit. The  great  and  cardinal  facts  of  the 
lapse  of  man  from  righteousness,  and  of  the 
need  and  promise  of  a  Redeemer,  were  em- 
bodied by  the  Psahiis  in  the  perpetual  public 
worship  of  the  Temple  ;  they  thus  became 
part  of  the  open,  common  inheritance  of  all ; 
and  were  systematically  forced,  so  to  speak, 
upon  the  attention  of  the  people,  that  they 
might  come  into  personal  and  conscious 
appropriation  of  this  most  precious  and  ab- 
solutely central  part  of  their  covenanted 
privileges. 

When  the  foot  of  the  Greek  first,  and 
afterwards  of  the  Roman,  trod  the  streets 
of  Jerusalem;  when  the  treasures  of  the 
Hebrew  books  were  unlocked  to  the  Gen- 
tile world  through  the  Septuagint ;  then 
there  happened,  we  may  justly  assume,  one 
of  two  things.  There  was,  as  we  know 
upon  strong  heathen  testimony,  before  the 
advent  of  our  Lord,  an  universal  and  tradi- 
tional expectation  in  the  East  that  a  great 
power  was  to  arise  in  Judsea  and  to  subdue 
the  world.  How  came  it  that  so  remark- 
able a  conception,  foreign  to'  the  cultivated 
communities  of  the  Greek  and  the  Italian 
peninsulas,  and  apparently  menacing  the 
continuance  of  the  Roman  dominion,  should 
at  this  time  have  been  prevalent  in  the  East  ? 
The  East  had,  indeed,  through  a  long  series 


THE  PSALMS. 


167 


of  centuries,  supposed  itself  entitled  to  the 
mastery  of  the  world  :  hence  the  wild  expe- 
dition of  Darius  into  Scythia,  and  the  re- 
peated conflicts  of  Persia  with  the  Greeks. 
It  is  not  strange  that  this  heritage  should 
in  some  shape  or  other  be  reclaimed,  for 
ideas  of  this  kind  are  tenacious  of  life,  and 
easy  of  revival.  But  what  is  at  first  sight 
most  strange  is,  the  choice  of  the  spot  from 
which  deliverance  was  to  proceed.  It  was 
not  from  any  of  the  seats  of  ancient  power, 
the  fame  of  which  was  still  on  record ; 
but  from  among  the  small,  isolated,  and  un- 
distinguished people  who  inhabited  Pales- 
tine, and  whose  brief  appearance  on  the 
stage  of  human  affairs  as  conquerors,  in 
the  time  of  King  David,  was  so  slight  in 
limit  and  in  duration,  as  to  have  inscribed 
no  mark  upon  the  page  of  general  history. 
It  had  passed  away,  like  the  old  empire  of 
the  Hittites.  The  Jews  were  also  a  people, 
whose  manners  and  institutions  repelled 
rather  than  attracted  the  sympathy  of  the 
world.  One  supposition,  explanatory  of 
this  remarkable  expectation,  might  be  that 
it  had  lived  on  from  prehistoric  times  in 
feebleness  and  obscurity,  but  had  come  to 
the  front  when  the  East  felt  the  hard  hand 
of  power  pressing  on  it  from  Rome,  and 
welding  it  for  the  first  time  by  a  permanent 
system  into  uniformity  of  servitude  or  in- 


1 68  THE  PSALMS. 

feriority,  from  which  it  panted  for  deHver- 
ance.  But  it  seems  more  probable  that  the 
Jewish  Scriptures,  which  had  for  two  cen- 
turies become  known  by  translation  into 
Greek,  were  themselves  the  fountain-head 
of  this  most  remarkable  anticipation  ;  and 
in  that  case  its  popular  promulgation  would 
seem  most  probably  to  have  been  due,  in 
an  eminent  degree,  to  the  Messianic  Psalms, 
which  were,  of  all  the  available  evidence, 
the  part  most  in  the  eye  and  mind  of  the 
people. 

Such  being,  in  outline,  the  presentation 
of  God  to  man  in  the  Book  of  Psalms,  let 
us  consider  in  its  turn  the  manner  in  which 
they  present  man  to  God.  Now  this  may 
be  set  forth  in  a  multitude  of  particulars, 
but  they  are  all  capable  of  being  summed 
into  one.  For  we  have  seen  that  the  Psalms 
are  a  book  of  spiritual  communion,  not  only 
between  God  and  man,  not  only  between 
God  and  His  Church,  or  especially  chosen 
people,  but  also,  and  even  pre-eminently, 
between  God  and  the  individual  man. 

As  it  is  the  fashion  of  the  day  to  assert 
for  the  sacred  books  of  other  religions  a 
kind  of  parity  with  the  Old  Testament,  I  ask 
the  reader  to  spend  a  few  moments  on  this 
subject. 

No  doubt  there  are  points  at  which  re- 
semblance may  be  traced  between  the  He- 


THE  PSALMS.  169 

brew  devotions  and  those  of  the  outer  world : 
not  those  of  the  outer  world  generally,  for 
from  the  Greek  mind,  as  represented  by  the 
Greek  literature,  devotion,  properly  so 
called,  has  disappeared  ;  the  rise  of  intellect, 
sad  and  strange  as  this  may  sound,  was  the 
fall  of  piety.  But  let  it  be  granted  that  in 
the  Vedas,  for  example,  and  in  the  Baby- 
lonian Hymns,  there  are  points  of  contact 
with  the  Psalms.  Do  those  points  of  con- 
tact run  along  the  whole  line  ?  are  they  con- 
tinuous, or  are  they  isolated  ?  Is  it 
coincidence,  or  is  it  a  sort  of  tangential  con- 
tact only,  or  one  which  reminds  us  of  the 
definition  of  a  point  as  that  which  has  posi- 
tion but  not  magnitude  in  space  ? 

May  not  those  hymns  be  described  as  be- 
longing only  to  the  idea  of  dependence  upon 
the  Deity — to  the  power  and  grandeur 
which  exists  on  one  side,  the  misery  and 
weakness  on  the  other?  This  is  perhaps 
what  is  called  the  religious  sentiment,  the 
religion  of  which  we  have  a  subjective  need, 
and  which  we  are  now  constantly  (and 
doubtless  in  good  faith)  assured  is  not  to 
disappear  on  the  submergence  of  positive 
religion  and  its  institutions.  But  does  this 
give  us  anything  near  a  true  conception  of 
the  Psalms  ?  They  are  based  upon  the 
idea,  not  of  dependence  only,  but  of  .sym- 
pathy and  conniiunion.     Yes,  for  the  work 


I/O 


THE  PSALMS. 


of  spiritual  discipline,  the  human  soul  is 
there  almost  lifted  upwards,  as  St.  Paul  was, 
into  the  third  heaven,  and  meets  the  Creator 
as  son  meets  father,  face  to  face.  It  is  not 
possible,  perhaps,  to  carry  this  idea  farther, 
than  it  is  carried  in  the  Psalms.  It  is  cer- 
tainly not  woven  into  a  closer  tissue  in 
Thomas  a  Kempis,  after  fourteen  centuries 
of  Christian  ideas  and  practices.  We  ap- 
proach to  it  in  the  Prophets,  when,  through 
Isaiah,  the  Almighty  invites  us  to  a  plead- 
ing (Is.  i.  1 8),  "  Come  now,  and  let  us  rea- 
son together."  *  But  can  we,  even  in  idea, 
press  it  further  or  lift  it  higher  than  in  that 
marvellous  expostulation  of  the  forty-fourth 
Psalm.  It  defies  the  test  of  extract  or  quo- 
tation. From  the  fifth  verse  to  the  end  it 
is  a  sustained  note  of  moving,  sorrowing 
appeal,  lifted  as  far  above  the  level  of  any 
merely  human  effort  known  to  us  as  the 
flight  of  the  lark,  "  hard  by  the  sun,"  is 
lifted  above  the  swallow,  when  it  foresees 
the  storm  and  skims  the  surface  of  the 
ground.  Such,  as  set  forth  in  the  Psalms  are 
the  inward  exercises  of  the  individual  soul. 
Not  that  the  stamp  set  upon  the  Psalms 
is  uniform  :  it  is  highly  diversified.  Take 
the  noble  first  Psalm,  which  opens  the 
Book.  It  sets  forth  in  one  part  (verses  3 
and  4)  with  a  tender  beauty,  in  another 
*  See  also  Ezek.  xviii.  25,  29. 


THE   PSALMS. 


171 


with  strong  and  stern  denunciation,  the 
positions  of  the  righteous  and  of  the  wicked 
before  God.  But  it  sets  them  forth,  as  it 
were,  from  the  outside.  So,  again,  many 
of  the  Psahns,  deahng  with  the  IsraeUtes  as 
a  whole,  have  for  their  theme  national  de- 
liverance and  glory.  But  let  us  turn  to  the 
penitential  Psalms,  and  most  of  all  to  the 
fifty-first,  in  which  King  David  *  sounds  the 
lowest  depths  of  sorrow  and  shame  for  sin,, 
and  has  provided  for  the  penitent  of  every 
age  and  every  character  the  medicine  that 
his  case  required.  On  these  Psalms  as  a 
whole,  on  this  Psalm  in  particular,  and, 
again  on  the  thirty-eighth  Psalm,  most  of 
all  in  its  first  moiety,  let  us  fasten  our  atten- 
tion for  a  moment.  Have  modern  learning 
and  research  succeeded  in  extracting  from 
all  the  sacred  books  of  all  the  ancient  relig- 
ions of  the  world  anything  like,  I  do  not 
say  a  parallel,  but  an  ever  so  remote  ap- 
proach to  them  ?  The  great  discourse  of 
our  Lord  to  Nicodemus,  in  the  third  chapter 
of  St,  John,  might  find  in  these  composi- 
tions a  basis  broad  enough  to  sustain  the 
whole  of  His  startling  doctrine,  "  except  a 
man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  king- 
dom of  God."  f 

*  Some  critics  argue,  not  without  some  reason  on  their 
side,  that  the  two  last  verses  are  an  exilic  addition, 
f  John  iii.  3. 


172  THE  PSALMS. 

Penitence  thus  lying  at  the  door  of  the 
process    by    which    man     is    appointed    to 
ascend  to  hohness,  this  golden  book  sup- 
plies, beyond  all  others,  the  types  and  aids 
for  attaining  it  in  all   its  stages.     All  that 
special  class  of  virtues,  which  were  unknown 
to  the  civilized  world  at  the  time  when  the 
Apostles  preached  them,  had  been  here  set 
forth  in   act  a  thousand  years   before,  and 
stored  up  for  use,  first  within   the   narrow 
circle  of  the  Jewish  worship,  and  then  in 
the  Church,  which  claims,  and  which  may 
yet  possess,  the   wide   world  for  its   inher- 
itance.    Another  standard  of  virtue  indeed, 
and  in   itself  a  glorious  one,  the  Greek  and 
the    Roman   world    possessed.     They    had 
their   code  of  Justice,  Fortitude,  Temper- 
ance, and  Wisdom.     But  this  list  of  virtues 
contained  no  recognition  of  the  terrible  and 
world-wide  fact  of  sin,  and  opened  no  road 
to  the  acquisition  of  powers  capable  of  con- 
tending against  it,  and  of  casting  down  its 
strongholds  to  the  ground.     That  road  was 
to  be  opened  by  the  Beatitudes  of  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount,  and  by  the  Faith,  Hope, 
and  Charity  of  St.  Paul.     Now,  is  there  one 
of  those  Beatitudes  which  has  not  been,  in 
its  blossom  or  its   germ,  anticipated  by  the 
Psalms  ?     Take  the  sanctification  of  sorrow 
in  verse  4 :  so  the  Psalm  instructs  us,  "  Thy 
loving   correction   shall    make    me    great"* 


THE  PSALMS. 


173 


(Ps.  xviii.  35).  Take  the  blessing  of  the 
meek  (verse  5).  So  says  the  Psalmist: 
"  Lord,  I  am  not  high-minded.  I  have  no 
proud  looks,  I  refrain  my  soul  and  keep  it 
low.  My  soul  is  even  as  a  weaned  child." 
(Ps.  cxxxi.  I,  3.)  These  are  principles,  not 
only  which  the  ancient  philosophies  did  not 
contain,  but  which  they  would  have  repu- 
diated and  contemned.  Take  again  that 
blessing  of  satiety  which  is  promised  ta 
"hunger  and  thirst"  after  righteousness; 
words  which  indicate  such  an  adult  age, 
such  a  fulness  of  growth  and  stature  in  the 
new  man  of  the  Christian  system,  that  what 
was  at  first  lesson  from  without  has  come 
to  be  appetite  from  within,  and  part  of  the 
untaught  spontaneous  working  of  a  renewed 
humanity.  But  this  idea  is  full}'  developed 
in  the  Psalms  (xlii.  I,  2),  "  Like  as  the  hart 
desireth  the  water  brooks,  so  longeth  my 
soul  after  Thee,  O  God.  My  soul  is  athirst 
for  God,  yea,  even  for  the  living  God:  when 
shall  I  come  to  appear  before  the  presence  of 
God."  Even  the  doctrine  of  forgiveness,  of 
doing  good  to  enemies,  to  the  growth  of 
which  the  conditions  of  Hebrew  life  were 
less  favorable,  finds  expression  in  the  Psalms. 
Take  xxxv.  12,  13:  "They  rewarded  me 
evil  for  good.  Nevertheless,  when  they 
were  sick  I  put  on  sackcloth,  and  humbled 
my  soul  with  fasting."     And  again,  "  If  I 


174 


THE  PSALMS. 


have  rewarded  evil  unto  him  that  dealt 
friendly  with  me :  yea,  I  have  delivered  him 
that  without  any  cause  is  mine  enemy" 
(Ps.  vii.  4).  It  is,  I  submit,  the  general  strain 
of  the  Psalms  to  which  we  should  look. 
And  who  will  deny  that  they  habitually 
abound  in  humility,  in  penitential  abase- 
ment, in  the  strong  faith  which  is  the  evi- 
dence of  things  not  seen,  in  fervor,  self- 
mistrust,  filial  confidence  towards  God? 
These  and  all  kindred  qualities  they  de- 
velop in  what,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  I 
will  term  their  innerness.  Their  tones 
come  from  the  inmost  heart,  and,  not  with 
a  rude  familiarity,  yet  with  a  wonderful 
nearness,  they  seem  to  seek  the  response, 
if  the  phrase  may  be  used  without  irrev- 
erence, from  the  inner  heart  of  God  Him- 
self 

All  this  is  severed,  as  a  whole,  by  an  im- 
measurable distance  from  the  language, 
ideas,  and  mental  habits  of  pagan  antiquity. 
What  we  find  there  of  religion  associated 
with  intellectual  culture  turns  upon  the  ex- 
ternal relations  between  God  and  man,  as 
between  sovereign  and  subject,  or  master 
and  dependent.  The  prehistoric  verse  of 
Homer  abounds  in  prayers.  They  are  not 
such  commonly  as  we  should  use,  yet  they 
indicate  fully  these  external  relations.  But 
in    the    life    of   later,   of  classical,   Greece^ 


THE  PSALMS.  175 

prayer  seems  wholly  to  have  lost  its  force 
and  place  as  a  factor  in  human  life. 

Again,  in  the  "  Odyssey  "  of  Homer  we 
have  remaining  traces  of  the  personal  rela- 
tion between  man  and  God.  In  the  in- 
tercourse of  Athene  with  Odysseus,  and 
reversely  in  her  action  on  the  minds  of  the 
guilty  suitors,  there  are  distinct  traces  of 
the  working  of  a  Divine  force  within  the 
soul  of  man.  I  do  not  remember  to  have 
found  anything  like  this  in  the  later  classical 
h'terature.  But  the  development  of  the 
principle  and  idea  of  a  communion  with 
God,  operative  on  human  feeling,  thought, 
and  action,  is  the  standing  and  central 
thought  of  the  Psalms.  And  it  is  probable 
that,  the  more  fixedly  we  regard  them,  the 
more  of  their  distinctive  marks  we  shall  per- 
ceive, even  as  the  stars  in  heaven  multiply 
to  the  gazing  eye.  The  pervading  idea  of 
a  living  communion  with  the  Most  High, 
the  communion  which  both  gives  and  takes, 
exhibits  and  fulfils  itself  in  many  ways. 
One  of  them  is  the  use  of  intercessory 
prayer ;  a  trait  conspicuously  absent  from 
the  numerous  and  interesting  prayers  of 
Homer.  Another  is  that,  while  full  of 
warm  personal  interests  they  persistently 
•  hold  up  the  banner  of  a  righteousness  apart 
from  and  above  all  personal  interests  what- 
ever.    Another  is  that  the  affections,  alien- 


176 


THE    PSALMS. 


ated  by  sin,  have  returned  to  their  alle- 
giance, and  are  arrayed  on  the  side  of  the 
Most  High.  The  testimonies  of  God  are 
the  "  very  joy  "  of  the  Psahiiist's  heart.  It 
is  all  his  desire  that  the  Divine  will  should 
have  free  course  and  be  glorified  upon  earth. 
The  glory  of  God  has  become  to  him  a 
profound  personal  interest.  "  Set  up  thy- 
self, O  God,  above  the  heavens  ;  and  thy 
glory  above  all  the  earth,"  Sentiments  of 
this  type  are,  I  apprehend,  hardly  to  be 
found  outside  the  precinct  of  the  Hebrew 
race. 

I  will  only  note,  in  passing,  before  quitting 
this  subject,  two  remaining  characteristics  ;, 
the  height  of  that  sacredness  which  the 
Psalms  attach  to  the  claims  of  the  poor  ; 
and  their  sense  of  the  utter  worthlessness 
of  all  ceremonial  observances,  though  com- 
manded, except  in  connection  with  the 
service  of  the  will,  and  purification  of  the 
heart. 

IV. — THE    OBJECTIONS    TAKEN  TO    THEM. 

Referring  to  what  has  been  said  else- 
where on  the  presence  of  a  human  element 
in  Holy  Scripture,  I  will  now  say  a  few 
words  on  the  special  objection  which  is 
lodged  against  the  Psalms. 

Let  me  first  endeavor  to  reduce  the  ques- 


THE   PSALMS  lyy 

tion  to  its  true  dimensions.  The  criticism 
is  not  here,  as  it  might  be  in  some  cases  of 
books  claiming  to  be  sacred,  that  they  are 
feeble,  or  fanciful,  or  remote  from  human 
interests,  or  that  large  veins  of  clay  run 
through  such  true  metal  as  they  contain. 
The  Psalms,  in  their  sublimity  and  in  their 
sympathy,  so  immeasurably  divine  and  so 
intensely  human,  are  proof  against  all  such 
criticism,  which  would  be  only  cavil.  The 
only  dart  which  really  rings  upon  their 
coat  of  mail,  is  the  dart  which  carries  the 
reproach  of  their  severe  and  unmeasured 
denunciation  of  enemies. 

And  first,  in  order  to  disembarrass  the 
question  of  matter  which  appears  to  be 
extreme  and  exceptional,  I  will  refer  to  the 
verse  which  represents  the  ne  plus  jiltra  of 
the  difficulty,  as  it  stands  in  the  Prayer- 
book  Version  of  the  Psalms ;  in  respect  to 
which  we  pay  a  certain  price  for  its  incom- 
parable majesty  and  beauty,  in  the  shape  of 
occasional  though  rare  shortcomings  as  to 
accuracy.  The  Prayer-book  gives  verses 
21,  22,  of  Psalm  cxxxix.,  as  follows: — 

"  Do  not  I  hate  them,  O  Lord,  that  hate  thee  :  and 
am  not  I  grieved  with  those  that  rise  up  against  thee  ? 

"  Yea,  1  hate  them  right  sore  :  even  as  though  they 
were  mine  enemies." 

Which  seems  to  say,  "  I    have  a    reserved 

12 


J  78  THE  PSALMS. 

stock  of  special  and  superlative  hatred  for 
those  who  have  not  only  sinned  in  general, 
but  have  sinned  against  me  in  particular." 
But  this  notion  is  completely  put  aside  in 
the  translation  direct  from  the  Hebrew  as 
it  stands  in  the  Authorized,  and  also  in  the 
Revised  Version,  where  the  second  of  the 
two  verses  runs  : — 

"  I  hate  them  with  a  perfect  hatred  ;  I  count  them  mine 
enemies." 

This  seems  not  to  set  up  the  selfish  feel- 
ing, about  offence  personally  received^ 
above  the  sentiment  of  indignation  and  re- 
sentment against  wickedness  ;  but  to  say 
only,  "All  that  I  might  feel  against  a 
personal  enemy,  all  that  natural  exaspera- 
tion would  suggest.  I  discharge  upon  the 
enemies  of  God."  But  the  sentiment  con- 
cerning them  has  already  been  expressed 
in  terms  not  admitting  of  enlargement. 
"  I  hate  them  with  a  perfect  hatred."  And 
this  brings  the  objection  to  a  point.  It  is 
that  this  unmeasured  detestation  and  in- 
vocation of  wrath  by  man  even  upon  God's 
enemies  cannot  be  justified,  and  is  not  to  be 
referred  to  divine  inspiration. 

Now  let  us  notice,  in  the  first  place,  that 
the  general  tone  of  the  Psalms  concerning 
enemies  is  not  aggressive,  but  defensive.  A 
sense  of  trouble  and  danger  from  the  might 


THE   PSALMS. 


179 


<of  experienced  or  impending  assault,  and 
an  appeal  to  God  for  protection,  furnish  the 
staple  sentiment  of  the  Book.  I  quote  a 
single  instance,  which  is  a  fair  sample  of 
the  whole  of  this  class  of  passages,  from 
Psalm  Ivi.  i,  2  : — 

•i 

» 

"Be  merciful  unto  me,  O  God,  for  man  goeth  about 
to  devour  me  :  he  is  daily  fighting  and  troubling  me.  ; 

"  Mine  enemies  are  daily  in  hand  to  swallow  me  up : 
for  they  be  many  that  fight  against  me,  O  thou  Most 
High." 

Let  those  who  question  the  assertion  I 
have  made,  that  this  passage  has  a  charac- 
ter typical  of  the  whole,  refer  (among  other 
places)  to  Psalms  v.  8 ;  vi.  7  ;  vii.  5  ;  xviii. 
.27,  passim;  Ivi.  9;  lix.  i  ;  Ixix.  4;  cxviii. 
II.  12;  cxxxviii.  7;  cxliii.  9. 

But  undoubtedl}^  a  certain  number  of 
passages  are  not  defensive,  they  are  denun- 
ciatory; such  as  liv.  5,  7;  lix.  10;  xcii.  ii  ; 
-cxliii.  12.  I  will  recite  this  last  verse  in 
full,  for  it  brings  into  view  the  sentiment 
■which  forms  the  base  of  all  these  pas- 
sages: "And  of  thy  goodness  slay  mine  ene- 
mies, and  destroy  all  them  that  vex  my 
son\,  for  I  am  tliy  servant!'  If  we  put  these 
words  into  paraphrase,  the  Psalmist  pleads  • 
that  he  is  engaged  in  the  service  of  God ;  • 
that  in  this  service  he  is  assailed  and  hin- 
dered ;  that,  powerless  in  himself,  he  appeals 


l8o  THE   PSALMS. 

to  the  source  of  power ;  and  that  he  invokes 
upon  the  assailants  and  hinderers  of  the 
Divine  work  the  Divine  vengeance,  even  to 
their  extinction. 

We  have,  then,  to  consider  these  denun- 

I;  ciatory   passages,   first,   as   they   were    em- 

5    ployed  by  their  authors ;  secondly,  as  they 

'    are  now  presented  to  us  for  our  own  use  in 

the    services  of  the  Church,   or  in   private 

devotion. 

Under  the  first  head,  let  me  observe  as 
follows.     There    is   not   one   of  these    pas- 
sages which  tampers  with  truth  or  justice; 
they  are   aimed  only  at  sin,  to  blast    and 
wither    it.     "  Lead    me,    O    Lord,   in    Thy 
righteousness,    because   of  mine    enemies "" 
(Ps.  V.  8).     This  is  the  universal  strain.     All 
these  passages  are  strokes    delivered   witlr 
the  sword  of  righteousness,  in  its  unending 
warfare   with   iniquity.     Nor    is    there  one 
among  them,  of  which  it  can  be  shown  that 
it  refers  to  any  personal  feud,  passion,   or 
desire.     Everywhere  the  Psalmist  speaks  in 
the  name  of  God,  on  behalf  of  His   word 
and  will. 

But  it  may  still   be  urged,  that  such    de- 

'    nunciations    are  excessive  in    degree,    that 

'    they  are  too  severe  and    savage,  and  that 

,    they  are  not  suitable  for  the  mouth  of  man. 

With  respect  to  their  severity  I  suggest, 

and  if  need  be  contend,  that  we,  in  our  igno- 


THE   PSALMS.  igi 

ranee  and  weakness,  are  no  fit  judges  of  the 
extent  to  which  the  wisdom  of  the  Almighty 
may  justly  carry  the  denunciation,  even  by 
the  mouth  of  man,  and  the  punishment  of 
guilt. 

Man,  and  even  civilized  man,  contem- 
plates with  much  equanimity  the  taking  of 
human  life  for  the  occasions  which  he  deems 
sufficient.  He  knows  that  in  all  wars  one 
party  must  be  guilty,  and  that  in  most  or 
many  wars  neither  have  had  a  justification 
for  the  wholesale  bloodshed,  which  floods 
the  path  of  destruction  that  they  necessarily 
follow.  Life,  which  man  did  not  give  and 
cannot  restore,  he  takes  away,  for  the  repres- 
sion of  crime,  with  general,  though  not 
unanimous,  approval.  It  is  also  taken,  even 
now,  in  most  Christian  countries,  through 
duels  for  private  injury  or  insult;  and  it  is 
but  recently  that  public  opinion  in  our  own 
•country  has  become  repugnant  to  the  prac- 
tice. But  the  scruples,  which  for  ourselves 
we  so  easily  thrust  aside,  become  active, 
feverish,  and  even  violent,  when,  in  a  world 
to  the  abundant  wickedness  of  which  our 
own  practice  witnesses,  the  Ruler  of  that 
world,  who  gave  life  for  use,  and  who  sees 
and  judges  its  abuse,  is  to  be  arraigned  be- 
fore our  mock  tribunal ;  and  we,  who  cannot 
and  do  not  rightly  guide,  each  of  us,  our 
own  action,  are  to  undertake  to  determine 


1 82  THE   PSALMS. 

His.  And  this,  when  we  have  not  fully- 
learned,  and  cannot  measure,  either  the 
deep  and  frightful  depravity  of  the  Canaanit- 
ish  nations,  or  the  purposes  with  which 
Penalty  descends  from  on  high.  We  know 
not  whether  it  comes  in  mercy  to  correct 
the  growth  of  evil  before  it  shall  become 
incurable,  and  whether,  or  how  far,  when 
opportunity  has  been  exhausted  here,  re- 
sources may  still  have  been  held  in  reserve 
on  behalf  of  persons  placed  as  they  were, 
to  be  expended  for  good  in  the  great  Else- 
where. To  pronounce  verdicts  upon  these 
terrible  denunciations  may  be  impious;  and 
is  surely,  at  the  least,  unreasonable. 

"  And  who  art  thou,  that  on  the  bench  would  sit, 
To  judge  what  is  a  thousand  miles  removed, 
"With  the  brief  vision  of  a  single  span  ?  "  * 

There  is  certainly  more  claim  to  sub- 
stance in  the  objection,  which  urges  that 
these  denunciations  are  unsuitable  for  man. 
But  here  I  should  interpose  the  question.  To 
what  man  ?  The  wonderful  nature,  in  which 
we  have  been  created,  is  in  nothing  more 
wonderful  than  in  the  diversity  of  the  con- 
ditions under  which  it  has  to  subsist  and 
work,  on  its  road  from  embryo  to  perfec- 
tion. As  those  stages  accumulate,  the 
moral  code  becomes  multiform  and  involved. 

*  Dante,  "  Parad."  xix.  Si.     Pollock's  translation. 


THE   PSALMS.  183 

In  simpler  forms  of  life,  and  in  earlier  stages 
of  society,  the  roads  between  right  and 
wrong  were  short,  broad,  and  clear;  like 
as  were  then  the  dividing  spaces  of  the  bat- 
tle-field, whereas  contending  hosts  are  now 
severed  by  miles,  and  almost  leagues,  from 
one  another. 

But,  further,  the  Psalmists,  and  the  nation 
to  which  they  belonged,  lived  under  a  dif- 
ferent dispensation  from  ours.  If  we  ac- 
cept the  Scriptures,  that  nation  held  a  divine 
commission  to  establish  the  right  and  to 
put  down  the  wrong,  in  a  sense  in  which 
no  such  commission  is  now  given.  For  us 
it  is  enough  to  hope  that  at  any  given  junc- 
ture we  may  be  doing  the  will  of  God ;  but 
what  we  hope,  they  knew ;  and  sight  for. 
them  was  mixed  with  faith  in  a  degree  and 
mode  remote  from  the  spirit  of  our  later, 
and  in  this  respect,  perhaps,  higher  training. 
They  were  accustomed  to  what  may  be 
termed  short  accounts  with  the  Divine  Jus- 
tice ;  and  to  reward  or  suffering  as  the  im- 
mediate consequences,  and,  therefore,  as 
the  direct  attestations,  of  the  judgment  of 
God  upon  the  moral  conduct  of  man.  The 
responsibility,  which  is  for  us  diffused  and 
indefinite,  was  for  them  concentrated  and 
palpable.  But,  besides  this,  they  had  the 
great  standing  institution  of  prophecy  ;  and 
the  king  in  whose  ears  Nathan's  words  had 


1 84  THE  PSALMS. 

thundered,  "Thou  art  the  man,"  might  well 
feel  that  his  own  contact  was  a  close  one 
with  the  mind  of  the  Almighty,  and  that 
he  might  upon  occasion  speak  his  very 
strongest  words  under  guidance  from  on 
High. 

I  do  not  pursue  farther  these  remarks, 
which  are  no  more  than  tentative  and  ap- 
proximate. But  I  do  not  find  myself  justi- 
fied in  the  assumption  that  we  are  in  all 
cases  to  have  a  complete  cognizance  of  the 
conditions  under  which  the  Psalms  give 
judgment  upon  the  unrighteous,  or  are  in- 
tended to  arrive  at  final  judgments  on  the 
question  what  the  Jews  might,  and  what 
they  might  not,  suitably  be  commissioned 
by  the  Almighty  to  denounce. 

More  immediately  are  we  concerned  in 
the  question  as  to  the  place  held  in  Chris- 
tian devotion,  and  especially  in  public  ritual, 
by  the  denunciatory  passages  of  the  Psalms. 
It  is  one  question  what  these  denunciations 
were  for  the  Jew;  it  is  another,  and  entirely 
distinct,  what  they  are  for  us.  But  the  an- 
swer to  this  objection,  I  apprehend,  lies 
near  to  hand.  All  scruple,  at  least  all 
rational  or  plausible  scruple  in  this  matter, 
seems  to  rest  upon  the  supposition  that  the 
passages  are  aimed  at  creatures,  who  have 
characters  mixed  between  good  and  evil, 
and  who  therefore  are  not  presumptively  fit 


THE  PSALMS.  185 

subjects  for  our  unmixed,  undiscriminating 
denunciation.     But  can  any  one  reasonably 
suppose  that  these  declarations  are,  in  the 
mind   and   sense   of  the   Christian  Church, 
directed  against  any  human  enemy?     Our 
human  enemies,  if  we  are  so  unhappy  as  to 
have   any,  are   not  the   most  watchful,  the 
most   subtle,   the   most   destructive   of  our 
foes.     "  For  we   wrestle   not    against   flesh 
and  blood,  but  against  ....  the  rulers  of 
the  darkness  of  this  world.*     But  the  Holy 
Scripture  and  the  Christian   religion  teach, 
and  our  human  experience  largely  testifies, 
that  there  are  spirits  whose  meat  and  drink, 
so  to  speak,  it  is  to   extend  the  domain  of 
evil,  to  deepen  corruption,  to  destroy  happi- 
ness by  destroying  innocence,  which  is  its 
base ;  to  add  both  in  range  and  in  intensity 
to  the  misery  and  the  sin  which  have  made 
the  world  so  sad.     If  this  be  so,  then  I  con- 
tend that  to  pray  for  the  abolition  or  paraly- 
sis of  their  work  and  of  its  agents,  and  this 
especially  when  we  meet  as   Christians  to 
set  forth  solemnly  the  collective  needs  and 
aspirations  of  mankind,  is  a  practice  which 
speaks  for  itself,  and  requires  neither  justifi- 
cation nor  apology. 

Apart  altogether  from  the  question,  what 
•  may  be  the  value   or  completeness   of  the 
foregoing    defensive   suggestions,   I    would 
*  Eph.  vi.  12. 


1 86  THE   PSALMS. 

remind  my  readers  that  they  relate  not  to 
the  main  body  of  the  question  respecting 
the  Psahiis,  but  to  a  portion  of  it  which  is 
hmited  and  exceptional.  The  Psalms,  like 
other  productions,  are  to  be  judged  by  their 
general  character,  I  do  not  perceive  how, 
if  we  approach  this  question  on  the  grounds 
and  in  the  spirit  of  reason,  it  is  possible  for 
a  person  so  approaching  it  to  set  aside  the 
mass  of  evidence,  which  establishes  the  un- 
paralleled and  unapproached  position  of  the 
Book  in  its  antiquity  and  use,  in  its  pure 
and  noble  theology,  and  in  a  moral  and 
spiritual  character  witnessed  afresh  by  the 
judgment  and  practice  of  each  succeeding 
age.  And,  if  the  several  parts  of  this  evi- 
dence link  themselves  into  a  compact  and 
harmonious  whole,  it  is  not  reason,  but  un- 
reason in  the  mask  of  reason,  which  declines 
or  omits  to  acknowledge  the  presumption 
thence  arising,  that  the  Book  is  at  a  level 
indefinitely  higher  than  has  been  reached 
by  the  unassisted  faculties  of  man,  and  that 
the  power  which  raised  it  to  that  level  can 
only  be  Divine.  Such  a  conclusion  will 
survive  even  the  approving  reference  in  Ps. 
cxxxvii.  9,  to  a  practice  of  savage  warfare. 
Were  it  true  that  the  image  of  gold  had  feet 
of  clay,  we  might  indeed  be  perplexed  by 
the  combination  ;  but  would  not  this  be  just, 
as  we  often  are  perplexed  by  other  combina- 


THE  PSALMS. 


187 


tions,  presented  to  us  in  the  providential 
government  of  the  world  ?  And  not  only 
in  the  providential  government  of  the  world, 
but  in  the  fulfilment  of  our  personal  rela- 
tions with  other  men.  Yet  we  do  not  put 
an  end  on  that  account  to  such  relations: 
nor  do  we  cease  to  believe  in  God  because 
we,  such  as  we  are — God  save  the  mark — 
cannot  comprehend  the  reason,  or  even  dis- 
cern the  rightfulness,  of  all  He  does.  In 
like  manner,  so  neither  can  we  refuse  to 
admit  sufficient  evidence  of  an  origin  more 
than  human  for  the  Psalms  on  the  ground 
that  we  see  only  through  a  glass  darkly, 
and  that  they  present  incidental  features 
analogous  in  principle  to  those  which  in 
other  departments  our  experience  brings 
before  us. 


« 


The  Mosaic  Legislation. 


The  Mosaic  Legislation. 

THE  legislative  Books  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, from  Exodus  to  Deuteronomy, 
may  be  contemplated  in  the  light,  either  (i) 
of  their  credentials,  or  (2)  of  their  character 
and  contents. 

The  Christian  Church,  which  had  here- 
tofore regarded  them  as  an  integral  and  in- 
structive part  of  the  Divine  Revelation,  is 
now  challenged  by  the  voices  of  numerous 
critics  to  defend  them.  Champions  in  this 
cause  are  not  wanting ;  and  it  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  the  learned  in  linguistic 
studies  have  arrived  at  unanimous  and  final 
conclusions  in  these  grave  matters.  If  we 
compare  their  studies,  as  to  unanimity,  con- 
tinuity, and  ascertained  progress,  with  that 
of  the  natural  sciences,  the  comparison  will 
be  not  at  all  to  their  advantage.  Their  ser- 
vices are  not,  however,  to  be  unduly  dis- 
paraged. What  is  understood  to  be  at  issue 
is,  the  date  and  authorship  of  the  Books  in 
the  form  in  which  we  now  have  them. 
These  are  contested  by  the  negative  school 


192 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


on  grounds  of  language  and  style,  upon 
which  none  can  properly  attempt  to  follow 
or  to  judge  them,  unless  when  equipped  with 
the  same  special  knowledge.  They  also 
allege,  as  parts  of  the  destructive  argument, 
that  the  Books  contain  anachronisms,  con- 
tradictions, statements  disproved  by  history. 

They  have  recently  been  challenged  by 
Dr.  Cave  *  to  set  forth  a  plain  and  distinct 
statement  of  these  difficulties,  such  as  might 
bring  the  allegations  in  some  degree  within 
the  circles  of  knowledge  and  of  judgment, 
for  us  who  are  not  experts  but  are  supposed 
to  be  endued  with  ordinary  intelligence. 
They  are  also  invited  to  state  what  meaning 
they  assign  to  the  standing  phrase,  "  And 
the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,"  which  with 
its  variants  occurs,  it  may  be  observed,  no 
less  than  thirty  times  in  the  twenty-seven 
chapters  of  Leviticus.  And,  finally,  they 
are  invited  by  Dr.  Cave  to  show  in  plain 
terms  the  reasons  why  it  is  unreasonable 
to  suppose  that  the  Books  (either  in  their 
present  state  or  otherwise)  were  contem- 
poraneous with  the  events  described  and 
grew  up  one  by  one  along  with  those  events. 

It  seems  but  common  equity  that  we, 
who  stand  outside  the  learned  world,  and 
who  find  operations  are  in  progress,  which 
are  often    declared   to    have  destroyed  the 

*  Contemporary  Review,  April  1S90,  pp.  537-551. 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


193 


authority  of  these  ancient  iBooks,  should  be 
supphed,  as  far  as  may  be,  with  available 
means  of  rationally  judging  the  nature  and 
grounds  of  the  impeachment.  And  it  is 
unfortunate  that  this  has  been  little  thought 
of;  and  that,  while  we  are,  it  may  almost 
be  said,  drenched  with  the  deductions  and 
conclusions  of  the  negative  critics,  it  is  still 
so  difficult,  in  multitudes  of  instances,  to 
come  at  any  clear  view  of  the  grounds  on 
which  they  build.  The  matters  of  style  and 
language  we  must  contentedly  take  upon 
trust ;  but  anachronism,  contradiction  of 
history,  contradiction  in  the  Books  them- 
selves, ought  to  be  more  or  less  within  our 
cognizance.  And  there  are  many  argu- 
ments of  historical  verisimilitude  and  likeli- 
hood, which  are  in  no  sense  the  exclusive 
property  of  specialism. 

Even  within  the  compass  of  the  Torah,  a 
distinction  has  been  drawn  by  some  eminent 
critics  (by  Eichhorn,  for  example),  in  their 
writings  on  the  canon  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ;  *  who  have  assigned  the  legislative 
portions  to  Moses  himself,  and  the  histor- 
ical parts  to  scribes  acting  under  his  direc- 
tion, or  at  a  later  time.     It  does  not  appear 

*  A  mo?t  convenient  summary  of  the  history  of  critical 
opinion  on  the  Pentateuch  is  supplied  by  Bleek  cum 
Wellhausen  in  the  Eiuleitiing  (Ed.  1886),  sects.  13-17. 
Wellhausen  adds  another  review  at  the  close  of  the  vol- 
ume in  this  edition. 

13 


194 


THE  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


easy  to  show  why  this  singular  intermixture 
of  the  two  should  have  been  made,  unless 
by  or  under  the  direction  of  the  lawgiver 
himself.  The  tangled  occupations  of  his 
evidently  hard-pressed  life  would  account 
for  a  form  of  authorship,  which  is  not  in 
itself  at  all  convenient.  But  the  ordinary 
reader  will  not  fail  to  observe  that  it  is  the 
legislation,  for  which  in  the  sacred  text  it- 
self the  claim  is  constantly  made  of  being 
due  to  direct  communication  from  above,* 
while  no  corresponding  assertion  in  general 
accompanies  the  historical  recitals.  Speak- 
ing at  large,  every  imaginable  difference  has 
prevailed  among  the  critics  themselves  as  to 
the  source,  date,  and  authorship  of  the 
Books.  But  on  the  whole,  the  negative 
movement  has  become  bolder  in  its  asser- 
tions as  it  proceeded,  and  has  brought  them 
gradually  towards  later  epochs  :  to  Samuel, 
to  the  age  of  David,  to  the  severance  of  the 
kingdoms,  to  Josiah,  to  the  Captivity,  and 
even  to  those  who  followed  it.  The  affirm- 
ative side  has  been  also  stoutly  maintained, f 
not  without  the  admission  of  particular  ad- 
ditions and  interpolations  in  the  received 
text.  The  distinction  between  substantial 
authorship,  and  final  editorship,  has  been 
largely   recognized  by  writers  of  celebrity 

*  So  Wellhausen  in  the  Einleitung,  sect.  1 8,  p.  40. 
f  Ibid.  s&ci.  15. 


THE  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


195 


and  weight.  Bleek  himself,  sustained  by 
Wellhausen  as  late  as  1886,  held  that 
Moses  had  a  hand  {cinoi  antJicil)  in  the 
Legislative  Books.  Many  of  the  laws,  they 
say  at  that  date,  are  without  sense  or  pur- 
pose, except  in  regard  to  circumstances 
which  disappeared  with  the  Mosaic  period.* 
Several  sections  of  this  important  work  f 
are  given  to  the  indication  of  portions  of 
the  Books  which  must  have  been  Mosaic. 
Further,  we  have  this  remarkable  declara- 
tion. Though  the  entire  Pentateuch  in  its 
present  form  should  not  have  been  the 
work  of  Moses,  and  though  many  laws  are 
the  product  of  a  later  age,  still  the  legisla- 
tion, in  its  spirit  and  character  as  a  whole,  is 
genuinely  Mosaic;];  and  that,  in  dealing 
with  the  Pentateuch,  we  stand,  at  least  as 
to  the  three  middle  Books,  upon  historical 
ground, §  evidently  meaning  upon  historical 
ground  as  opposed  to  that  which  is  unau- 
thenticated  or  legendary,  p'urther,  what  is 
thus  generally  asserted  of  the  spirit  and 
character  of  the  Pentateuchal  laws,  is  as- 
serted tor  an  important  share  of  them  ||  as 
to  both  the  contents  and  even  the  form. 
These  statements — it  would  not  be  fair  to 

*  Ibid.  sect.  II.  f  13-24. 

\  "  So  vniss  dock  die  dmin  oithalteue  gesetzgebung 
ihreiii  gameti  gtiste  und  c/taracter  nach  echt  titosaisch 
seyn." — Ibid.,  sect.  22,  p.  45. 

I  Ibid.  |[  Sect.  23,  p.  46. 


196 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


call  them  admissions — go  to  the  root  of  the 
whole  matter,  and  seem  to  leave  us  in  pos- 
session of  that  for  which  alone  I  contend ; 
namely,  that  the  heart  and  substance  of  the 
legislative  and  institutional  system  delivered 
to  us  in  the  Pentateuch  is  historically  trust- 
worthy. If  this  be  so,  it  still  remains  highly 
important  to  distinguish  by  critical  examina- 
tion what,  if  any,  particular  portions  of  the 
work  in  their  actual  form  may  be  open  to 
question,  either  as  secondary  errors,  or  as 
developments  appended  to  the  original  for- 
mation ;  but  the  citadel,  so  long  victoriously 
held  by  faith  and  reason,  both  through 
Hebrew  and  through  Christian  ages, 
remains  unassailed,  and  the  documents  of 
Holy  Writ  emerge  substantially  unhurt 
from  the  inquisitive  and  searching  analysis 
of  the  modern  time. 

There  is  a  later  work  of  Wellhausen's 
("  Die  composition  des  Hexateuch's  und  der 
Historischen  Biicher  :  "  Berlin,  1889)  which 
minutely  subdivides  the  Books  into  smaller 
portions,  and  refers  these  to  their  different 
authors,  with  a  self-reliance  which  appears 
to  be  remarkable,  but  of  which  I  am  not  a 
fit  judge.  I  may  observe,  however,  that 
this  work  has  neither  introduction  nor  con- 
clusion, neither  index  nor  table  of  contents, 
and  that  it  resembles  rather  the  promiscuous 
gatherings  of  a  note-book,  or  rather,  of  two 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


197 


note-books  crossing  one  another,  discharged 
bodily  into  a  printing-office,  than  a  work  of 
regular  or  scientific  criticism.  I  must  add 
that  in  certain  cases,  where  the  unity  of  the 
'  text  is  disputed  upon  grounds  alike  cogniz- 
able by  us  all.  I  find  the  conclusions  of 
the  author  as  disputable  as  they  are  confi- 
dent. In  other  instances,  numerous  enough, 
assertions  are  made,  as  if  they  were  oracles, 
without  the  slightest  explanation,  or  any  in- 
dication of  their  grounds.  Examples  of 
these  methods  may  be  found  in  the  criti- 
cisms *  on  Genesis,  and  in  the  contradiction 
alleged  to  exist  in  the  several  accounts  of 
Caleb  and  Joshua  (Num.  xxxii.  5,  and  Deut. 
i.  32-8). 

A  still  more  negative  utterance,  if  I  under- 
stand it  rightly,  is  found  in  the  "  Prole- 
gomena to  the  History  of  Israel,"  translated 
under  the  author's  supervision,  and  accom- 
panied with  his  article  on  Israel  from 
\.\\Q  Encyclopccdia  Britannica.'\  This  book, 
published  since  the  edition  of  Rleek  C7iiii 
Wellhausen  from  which  I  have  quoted, 
appears  in  a  singular  manner  to  contradict 
it,  and  announces  that  "  the  Mosaic  history 
is  not  the  starting-point  for  the  history  of 
ancient  Israel,  but  for  the  history  of 
Judaism."  %     The    distinction    may  not  be 

*  Page  7.         t  Edinburgh  :  A.  &  C.  Black,  1S85. 
X  Preface  by  Professor  Robertson  Smith,  p.  v. 


1^8         THE  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

familiar  to  English  readers,  but  the  mean- 
ing seems  to  be  that  the  Pentateuch  had 
not,  either  in  form  or  substance,  any  opera- 
tive existence  until  after  the  Exile,  when 
the  ancient  Israel  is  held  to  end,  and  Ju- 
daism to  begin.  A  "  Mosaic  germ  "  only 
is  admitted  ;  and  a  germ  is  that  which,  like 
an  unborn  child,  has  no  operative  existence, 
but  only  the  promise  of  producing  one. 
According,  then,  to  the  showing  of  those 
who  tender  themselves  as  our  guides,  Israel 
lived  on  for  nine  hundred  years,  from  the 
Exodus,  and  transmitted  a  peculiar  faith, 
law,  ritual,  and  nationality,  without  any 
legislative  and  constitutional  system  to  up- 
hold anyone  of  them.  This  very  startling 
proposition  appears  to  me  to  do  violence  to 
reason  not  less  glaringly,  than  any  of  the 
assertions  ventured  by  the  theologians  in 
the  days  of  their  pride  and  power.  Those 
writers  are  doubtless  perfectly  sincere,  who 
represent  this  as  a  method  of  progressive 
revelation.  But  there  are  also  persons  who 
think  that  such  a  progressive  revelation  as 
this  would  for  over  two  thousand  years 
have  palmed  upon  the  whole  Jewish  and 
Christian  world  not  only  a  heartless,  but  an 
impossible  imposture.  It  is  more  imme- 
diately necessary  to  observe  that  the  hy- 
pothesis is  one  reaching  far  beyond  the 
province  of  specialism,  and  requiring  to  be 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


199 


tested  at  a  number  of  points  by  considera- 
tions  more   broadly   historical.     Nor  can  I 
quit  the  subject  without  observing  that  it  is 
extremely  difficult  to  learn  whether    there 
exists  any  real  standing  ground,  which  the 
present  negative  writers   mean   not   only  to 
occupy    but   to  hold.     Almost    any   repre- 
sentation of  their  views  may  be  either  sup- 
ported or  contradicted  by  citing  particular 
expressions  from  their  works.     All  we  can 
do  is  to  dive  as  best  we  may  into  their  con- 
ception of  what  Wellhausen   rather  singu- 
larly calls  "  the  secrets  "  of  his  art.*     Upon 
the  whole,  and  taking  the  article  on  Israel 
in     the     Encyclopedia    Britannica    as    the 
fairest  exposition  of  his  views,  I   infer  that 
the  present  fashion   is  to  believe  in  Moses, 
but  to  question  even  his  connection  with  the 
Decalogue ;  f  to  allow  him  to   have  given 
or  suggested  a  something,  totally  indefinite 
in   its    character,  to   the  Israelites  ;  and    to 
hold   that   the   materials  of  the  legislative 
books   gradually   grew  up   out   of  material 
supplied  upon  occasion  by  the  priests  (like 
the  "  Answers    of  Experts,"  J  which    sup- 
plied a  contribution  to  the  Code  of  Justinian) 
into  a  state  which  enabled  editors,  generally 
post-exilic,  to  reduce  them  to  their  present 

*  Einkitiing,  Ed.  1886,  Vorwort. 

f  Wellhausen,  Hist.  Israel   (Black),  pp.  436,  509. 

j  Gibbon  (Milmau's  ed.),  iv.  193. 


200         ^-^^    MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

form.  This  scheme  seems  to  be  admirably 
represented  by  the  words  which  Mr.  Rob- 
bertson  Smith  quotes,  on  his  own  very  high 
authority,  as  its  gist.  And  this  is  the 
scheme  to  which  I  desire,  on  historical 
grounds,  to  demur. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  undeniable  that, 
even  if  the  outside  negative  conclusions 
were  still  such  as  they  were  stated  to  be  so 
lately  as  in  1886,  yet  the  impression  they 
had  created  was  not  of  a  similarly  limited 
character.  Whether  owing  to  the  predis- 
positions of  the  time,  or  to  a  spirit  latent  in 
some  of  the  critics,  or  to  the  reaction  which 
is  usually  perceptible  when  certain  ideas 
long  cherished  on  one  side  have  been  found 
to  require  modification,  there  have  been,  as 
it  were,  exhalations  from  the  recent  in- 
quiries, extending  outwards  in  their  effect 
much  beyond  the  positive  conclusions.  An 
atmosphere  has  been  diffused  around  us, 
and  we  habitually  inhale  it,  which  inspires 
a  general  uncertainty,  leading  to  negation, 
with  respect  to  the  Mosaic  Books.  This 
causes  us,  not,  perhaps,  to  believe  (for  this 
would  imply  and  demand  a  rational  process), 
but  to  feel  towards  these  great  foundation- 
books  as  if  we  believed,  that,  instead  of 
being  as  to  the  heart  and  pith  of  them  trust- 
worth\%  they  were  in  the  main  untrust- 
worthy;   that    they   were    compounded    or 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION.        2OI 

composed  at  uncertain  times,  by  uncertain 
authors,  from  uncertain  materials  ;  that  even 
bad  faith  is  to  be  traced  in  them  ;  and  that 
the  question  is  not  so  much  what  particu- 
lars can  be  convicted  of  unauthenticity,  as 
whether  any  particulars  can  be  rescued  from 
the  general  discredit  of  a  mythical  or  legen- 
dary inception.  It  is  against  this  vague, 
irrational,  unscientific  method  of  proceed- 
ing, that  I  would  enter  not  a  protest  only, 
but  a  pleading.  Whatever  is  to  happen, 
let  not  Christians  lose  unawares  either  their 
faith,  or  that  pillar  of  their  faith  which  the 
great  Books  of  the  Old  Testament  always 
have  supplied. 

I  have  already  made  it  clear  that  I  yield, 
as  matter  of  course,  to  the  conclusions  of 
linguists  in  their  own  domain,  not  only 
respectful  attention,  but  provisional  assent. 
That  domain  includes  not  only  criticism 
strictly  textual,  but  all  that  relates  to  style, 
and,  in  a  word,  whatever  properties  of  any 
given  writings  are  developed  through  the 
medium  of  the  particular  tongue  in  which 
they  are  composed.  On  the  mere  form  of 
the  Books  they  speak  with  a  force  which, 
as  against  us,  the  unlearned,  is  overwhelm- 
ing. But,  in  the  examinations  directed  to 
the  matter  as  opposed  to  the  form,  their 
authority  is  of  a  less  stringent  character,  and 
may  even  decline  to  zero.     The  historical 


202         THE  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

aspects  and  relations  which  open  out  this 
field  are  not  theirs  exclusively,  and  we  may 
canvass  and  question  their  conclusions,  just 
as  it  is  open  to  us  to  proceed  with  the  con- 
clusions of  Macaulay  or  of  Grote. 

When  it  is  attempted  to  bring  down  the 
date  of  the  Pentateuch  from  the  time  of 
Moses,  by  whom  the  Books  in  various  forms 
purport  *  to  have  been  composed,  to  the 
period  of  the  Babylonian  captivity,  and  this 
not  only  as  to  their  literary  form,  but  as  to 
their  substance,  the  evident  meaning  and 
effect  of  the  attempt  is  to  divest  them  of  an 
historical,  and  to  invest  them  with  a  legen- 
dary character. 

At  the  same  time,  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  those  w^ho  have  not  seen  reason 
to  adopt  the  negative  theory  above  de- 
scribed, leave  entirely  open  numerous  ques- 
tions belonging  to  the  institutions  of  the 
Israelites.  It  is  not  extravagant  to  assume 
that  laws  given  to  them  as  a  nomad  people, 
and  then  subjected  to  the  varying  contin- 

*  For  instance,  as  by  the  proem  to  Deuteronomy  (i.  i) : 
the  recited  orders  of  the  Almighty  to  Moses  that  he 
should  speak,  followed  by  the  speeches,  e.g..  Lev.  i.  I, 
Num.  i.  I  :  the  constant  verbal  report  of  words  spoken 
to  Moses  when  no  other  person  (or  in  some  cases  Aaron 
only)  was  present :  and  the  remarkable  and  high-toned 
injunctions  in  the  later  chapters  of  Deuteronomy  which 
all  through  seem  to  have  reference  to  a  code  of  legisla- 
tion preceding  them. 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


203 


gencies  of  history  during  many  centuries, 
may  or  even  must  have  required  and  re- 
ceived adaptation  by  supplement,  develop- 
ment, or  change  in  detail,  which  the 
appointed  guides  of  the  people  were  author- 
ized and  qualified  to  supply,  not  in  deroga- 
tion, but  rather  in  completion  and  in  fur- 
therance of  the  work  of  Moses,  which  might 
still  remain  his  in  essence  from  first  to  last. 

It  is  admitted,  however,  that  the  whole 
question  must  be  tried  on  historical  and 
hterary  grounds.  On  such  grounds  I  seek 
to  approach  it,  and  to  throw  light  upon  it 
from  some  considerations  of  reason  and 
probability,  which  appear  to  me  to  be  of 
not  inconsiderable  cogency.  By  testing  the 
subject  in  this  wa}',  we  may  come,  in  part 
at  least,  to  learn  by  testing  what  in  the  main 
is  fact,  what  in  the  main  is  speculation,  and 
to  a  great  extent  fluctuating  and  changeful 
speculation. 

First,  it  is  never  to  be  forgotten,  that  our 
point  of  departure  is  from  the  ground  of 
established  historic  fact.  The  existence  of 
Moses  is  even  better  and  far  better  estab- 
hshed  than  that  (for  example}  of  L}-curgus: 
We  know  Lycurgus  in  the  main  from  the 
one  great  fact  of  his  very  peculiar  institu- 
tions. They,  such  as  we  find  them  in  his- 
toric times,  compel  us  to  presume  his 
existence  in  a  prehistoric  time.     Not  only 


204 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


their  high  and  elaborate  organization,  but 
their  practical  efficacy  in  separating  and 
fencing  ofif  from  the  rest  of  Greece  the 
Spartan  community,  reduces  to  something 
near  absurdity  any  such  supposition  as  that 
they  were  essentially  no  more  than  a  late 
growth  reached  by  imperceptible  degrees. 
We  know  Moses  as  well  from  his  institu- 
tions, which  are  by  no  means  less  peculiar, 
and  which,  as  experience  has  shown,  have 
been  very  far  more  durable.  In  the  case  of 
Moses,  it  happens  that  we  have  much  evi- 
dence independent  of,  and  anterior  to,  the 
institutions  themselves  in  their  historic  form. 
Yet  no  one  doubts  either  the  existence  of 
the  Spartan  lawgiver,  or  the  general  char- 
acter of  his  personal  work.  If  the  form  of 
the  Books  in  which  the  Mosaic  legislation 
reaches  us  be  open  to  the  suspicion  of 
manipulation  by  scribes  or  editors,  or  if  it 
suggest  some  suspicion  of  developments, 
how  does  this  compare  with  the  case  of 
Lycurgus?  About  or  from  him  we  have 
no  books  at  all ;  and  yet  it  would  be  deemed 
irrational  to  doubt  either  the  existence  of 
the  man,  or  the  substance  of  the  work  per- 
formed by  him. 

The  exodus  from  Egypt,  the  settlement 
in  Palestine,  the  foundation  there  of  institu- 
tions, civil  and  religious,  which  were  en- 
dowed with  a  tenacity  of  life  and  a  peculi- 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


205 


arity  of  character  beyond  all  example  :  these 
thing's  are  established  by  Scripture,  but  they 
are  also  established  independent  of  Scripture, 
They  constitute  a  trinoda  necessitas,  a  three- 
fold combination  of  fact,  which,  in  order  to 
make  them  intelligible  and  coherent,  in 
order  to  supply  a  rational  connection  be- 
tween cause  and  effect,  require  not  only  a 
Moses,  but  such  a  Moses  as  the  Scripture 
supplies.  They  build  up  a  niche,  which 
the  Scripture  fills.  At  all  times  of  history, 
and  specially  in  those  primitive  times,  when  * 
the  men  made  the  governments,  not  the 
governments  the  men,  these  great  inde- 
pendent historic  facts  absolutely  carry  with 
them  the  assumption  of  a  leader,  a  governor, 
a  legislator.  All  this  simply  means  a 
Moses,  and  a  Moses  such  as  we  know  him 
from  the  Pentateuch. 

And  this  leads  us,  I  do  not  say  to,  but 
towards,  the  conclusion  that  whatever  be 
the  disparaging  allegations  of  the  critics,, 
they  may  after  all  according  to  likelihood 
be  found  reasonable  as  to  matters  of  form 
or  of  detail,  but  that  the  substance  of  the 
history  is  in  thorough  accordance  with  the 
historic  bases  that  are  laid  for  us  in  profane 
as  well  as  in  sacred  testimony.  If  this  be 
so,  then  we  have  also  to  bear  in  mind  that 

*  So  Montesquieu,  "  Grandeur  et  decadence  des  Re- 
mains," chap.  i. 


2o6  ^^^^   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

the  phenomenon,  which  we  have  before  us, 
is  one  so  peculiar  tliat  it  could  only  have 
been  exhibited  to  the  world  as  the  off- 
spring of  a  peculiar  generating  cause.  A 
people  of  limited  numbers,  of  no  marked 
political  genius,  negative  and  stationary  as 
to  literature  and  art,  maintain  their  abso- 
lutely separate  existence  for  near  a  thousand 
years,  down  to  the  Captivity.  They  are 
placed  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  and 
subject  to  the  frequent  attacks,  of  the  great 
Eastern  monarchies,  as  well  as  of  some  very 
warlike  neighbors.  These  attacks  compro- 
mise their  political  independence,  but  do 
not  prevent  it  from  being  recovered.  They 
receive  the  impress  of  a  character  so  marked 
that  not  even  the  Captivity  can  efface  it; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  that  searching  trial 
helps  to  give  a  harder  and  sharper  projec- 
tion to  its  features.  It  retains  its  solidity 
and  substance  while  everything  else,  includ- 
ing great  political  aggregations,  such  as  the 
Hittite  monarchy,  becomes  gradually  fused 
in  the  surrounding  masses  ;  and  this  even 
when  it  has  been  subjected  to  conditions 
such  as  at  Babylon,  apparently  sufficient  to 
beat  down  and  destroy  the  most  obstinate 
nationalism.  Can  it  be  denied  that  this 
great  historic  fact,  nowhere  to  be  matched, 
is  in  thorough  accordance  with,  and  almost 
of  itself  compels  us  to  presuppose,  the  exist- 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION.        207 

ence  from  the  outset  of  an  elaborately  de- 
tailed and  firmly  compacted  system  of  laws 
and  institutions,  under  which  this  peculiar 
discipline  might  subsist  and  work,  so  as 
gradually  to  shape,  determine,  and  mature 
the  character  of  the  people  ? 

If,  apart  from  all  questions  of  form  and 
expression,  the  substance  of  the  Mosaic  law 
was  given  to  the  Israelites  on  their  settle- 
ment in  Palestine,  such  a  provision,  it  may 
fearlessly  be  said,  was  in  full  accordance 
with  the  moral  exigency  of  the  case,  and 
with  the  laws  of  historical  probability.  If 
on  the  other  hand  there  was  no  Moses,  or 
only  a  Moses  who  left  nothing  behind  him» 
and  who  does  not  rank  among  the  lawgivers 
of  the  world,  if  the  Legislative  Books 
represent  a  gradual  and  mythical  accretion 
due  mainly  either  to  class  interests  or  to  the 
magnifying  effect  of  distance,  turned  to 
account  by  invention  either  interested  or 
credulous,  then  the  hypothesis  presented  to 
us  is,  it  may  surely  be  contended,  in  violent 
discord  with  what,  on  principles  of  Provi- 
dential government  or  of  human  good  sense, 
the  case  would  usually  be  held  to  have 
required. 

In  estimating  the  claim  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  a  divine  origin,  it  is  important  to 
compare  the  legislation  given  by  Moses 
with  that  of  other  ancient  lawgivers,  such, 


2o8         THE   MOSAIC   LEGISLATION. 

for  example,  as  Solon,  who  enjoyed  the 
light  of  a  far  more  advanced  civilization. 
Still,  this  comparison,  if  alone,  would  not 
fully  bring  out  the  reason  of  the  case ;  we 
•must  also  match  the  Hebrew  intellect,  as 
measured  by  knowledge,  art  and  manners, 
with  the  corresponding  conditions  among 
the  other  nations  whose  laws  may  be  brought 
into  the  comparison.  For  if,  with  inferior 
tools  and  materials,  a  superior  work  was 
produced,  it  must  surely  be  admitted  that 
such  a  result  suggests,  even  perhaps  of 
itself  requires,  the  supposition  of  some  hid- 
den aid  which  rectified  the  disproportion, 
and  placed  the  means  in  a  due  relation  to  the 
end.  Now,  among  the  Hebrews  of  the  period 
there  is  no  sign  as  yet  of  intellectual  pre- 
dominance or  advancement;  and  that  such  a 
man  as  Moses  should  have  been  raised  up 
amongst  them  is  a  fact  which  of  itself  sug- 
gests and  sustains  the  idea  of  some  altogether 
special  and  peculiar  guidance  exercised  by 
the  Almighty  over  the  selected  people. 

I  cannot  but  think  that,  wherever  we 
turn,  we  seem  to  find  the  broad  and  lucid 
principles  of  historic  likelihood  asserting 
themselves  in  favor  of  the  substance  of  the 
Legislative  Books,  apart  from  questions  of 
detail  and  literary  form. 

In  its  great  stages,  we  are  entitled  to  treat 
the  matter  of  the  narrative  books  as  history 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


209 


entitled  to  credit.  An  elaborate  organiza- 
tion, with  a  visible  head  and  an  hereditary- 
succession,  is,  after  a  long  lapse  of  time, 
substituted  for  a  regimen  over  Israel,  of 
which  the  mainsprings  had  been  personal 
eminence  and  moral  force.  It  is  repre- 
sented in  the  Scripture,  and  it  seems  ob- 
vious, that  the  transition  from  this  patri- 
archal republicanism  to  monarchy  was  in  the 
nature  of  a  religious  retrogression.  It  showed 
an  increasing  incapacity  to  walk  by  faith, 
and  a  craving  for  an  object  of  sight,  as  a 
substitute  for  the  Divine  Majesty  appre- 
hended by  spiritual  insight,  and  habitually 
conceived  of  by  the  people  as  the  head  of 
the  civil  community.  This  view  of  the  rel- 
ative condition  of  republican  and  of  regal 
Israel  is  confirmed  by  the  fact,  on  which  I 
have  already  observed,  that  with  the  mon- 
archy came  in  another  regular  organization, 
that  of  the  schools  of  the  prophets.  Proph- 
ecy, which  for  the  present  purpose  we  may 
consider  as  preaching,  instead  of  appearing 
from  time  to  time  as  occasion  required,  be- 
came a  system,  with  provision  for  perpetual 
succession.  That  is  to  say,  the  people  could 
not  be  kept  up  to  the  primitive,  or  even  the 
necessary,  level  in  belief  and  life,  without 
the  provision  of  more  elaborate  and  direct 
means  of  instruction,  exhortation,  and  re- 
proof, than  had  at  first  been  requisite. 
H 


2IO        THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

Notwithstanding  the  existence  of  those 
means,  and  the  singular  and  noble  energy 
of  the  prophets,  the  proofs  of  the  decline  are 
not  less  abundant  than  painful,  in  the 
wickedness  of  most  of  the  sovereigns,  and 
in  the  almost  wholesale  and  too  constant 
lapse  of  the  Israelites  into  the  filthy  idolatry 
which  was  rooted  in  the  country.  And 
again,  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  the 
enumeration  by  name  of  the  great  historic 
heroes  of  faith,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, ends  in  tlie  person  of  King  David,* 
with  the  first  youth  of  the  monarch}^  The 
only  later  instances  referred  to  are  the 
prophets,  named  as  a  class,  who  stood  apart 
and  alone,  and  were  not  as  a  rule  leaders 
of  the  people,  but  rather  witnesses  in  sack- 
cloth against  their  iniquities.  Taking  the 
history  from  the  Exodus  to  the  Exile  as  a 
whole,  the  latter  end  was  worse  than  the 
beginning,  the  cup  of  iniquity  was  full;  it 
had  been  filled  by  a  gradual  process :  and 
one  of  the  marks  of  that  process  was  a  low- 
ering of  the  method,  in  which  the  chosen 
people  were  governed ;  it  became  more  hu- 
man and  less  divine. 

Under  these  circumstances,  does   it  not 

appear  like   a  paradox,  and  even   a   rather 

wanton  paradox,  to  refer  the  production  of 

those  sacred   Mosaic  Books,  which  consti- 

*  Heb.  xi.  32. 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION.         211 

tuted  the  charter,  and  formed  the  character, 
of  the  Hebrews  as  a  separate  and  peculiar 
people,  to  the  epochs  of  a  lowered  and  de- 
caying spiritual  life  ?  They  surely  formed 
the  base  on  which  the  entire  structure 
rested.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  separate 
the  fabric  from  its  foundation.  Had  they 
not  been  recorded  and  transmitted,  it  would 
have  been  reasonable,  perhaps  necessary, 
for  us  to  presume  their  existence.  They 
could  only  spring  from  a  plant  full  of  vig- 
orous life,  not  from  one  comparatively  sickly 
and  exhausted. 

Again,  we  are  taught  by  the  negative 
school  that  the  portion  of  the  Pentateuch, 
which  specially  describes  the  work  of  the 
Priest,  and  which  they  term  the  Priest-Code, 
is  of  late  composition,  probably  the  latest 
of  all,  and  has  been  devised  in  the  interest 
of  the  priestly  order. 

Now  I  think  that  there  are  ready  means 
of  applying  the  touchstone  to  this  allega- 
tion. It  seems  the  great  aim  of  the  as- 
sailants to  bring  down  the  date  of  the  main 
contents  of  the  Legislative  Books  to  the 
Exile  and  the  period  which  follows  it.  Now 
we  have  to  remember  that  the  schools  of 
the  prophets  established  a  caste  which  was 
in  professional  rivalry  with  the  priesthood, 
and  which  presented  every  likelihood  of 
being  its    effective    censor.     We    have   the 


212         THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

written  and,  I  believe,  unquestioned  pro- 
ductions of  this  school  of  prophets,  reach- 
ing back  into  the  ninth  century  (in  the 
Book  of  Amos),  above  two  hundred  years 
before  the  Exile.  The  relation  of  the 
prophet  to  the  priest,  somewhat  accentuated 
so  to  speak  by  competing  interests,  was  in 
certain  respects  one  of  superiority ;  for, 
while  the  priest  only  administered  in  a  hu- 
man way  a  system  originally  of  Divine  ap- 
pointment, the  prophet  believed  himself  to 
speak  under  direct  inspiration  and  com- 
mand from  the  Most  High.  The  supposi- 
tion pressed  upon  us  is  that,  during  the 
period  when  the  Books  of  the  Prophets  were 
being  produced,  the  priests  foisted  upon  the 
nation  adulterated,  nay,  rather  forged, 
works,  which  they  audaciously  ascribed  to 
Moses,  and  which  they  shaped  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  sacerdotal  order.  Is  it  not  quite 
plain  that,  if  this  had  been  true,  nay,  if  it 
had  been  so  much  as  an  approach  to  the 
truth,  the  prophets  would,  in  the  interests 
of  righteousness  even  more  than  in  their 
own,  have  made  use  of  the  advantages  of 
their  position,  and  would  have  held  up 
such  a  flagrant  iniquity  of  the  rival  class  to 
infamy  or  rebuke  ?  Yet  they  do  nothing 
of  the  sort.  And  it  is  not  even  open  to  us 
to  refer  this  to  some  hidden  cause,  as  it 
would  have  been  if  we  could  have  alleged 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION.         213 

that,  for  some  undeclared  reason,  it  is  their 
habit  to  pass  by  the  conduct  of  the  priests 
in  silence.  For,  on  the  contrary,  they  do 
exercise  the  office  of  reprimand  most 
freely.  They  do  reprove  and  denounce 
neglect  of  duty  and  abuse  of  power  by 
the  priests  ;  but  they  do  this  exactly  in 
the  same  way  for  the  priestly  order  and 
for  their  own  ;  and,  though  they  could  not 
have  been  biassed  against  their  own  schools, 
there  is  no  sign  that  priests  were  more 
faulty  than  prophets.  By  way  of  specimen 
of  their  usual  manner,  I  may  quote  the 
prophet  Zephaniah,  who  in  the  following 
passage  appears  to  administer  justice  im- 
partially all  round : 

"  Her  princes  within  her  are  roaring  lions;  her  judges 
are  evening  wolves ;  they  gnaw  not  the  bones  till  the 
morrow. 

"  Her  prophets  are  light  and  treacherous  persons  :  her 
priests  have  polluted  the  sanctuary,  they  have  done  vio- 
lence to  the  law."  * 

All  were  human,  all  were  alike.  There 
is  nowhere  a  tittle  of  evidence  to  show  the 
gross  and  very  special  offences  with  which 
the  priesthood  are  now  charged.  In  such 
a  case  the  negative  evidence  carries  positive 
force.  It  is  evident,  first,  that  the  prophets 
knew  nothing  of  such    delinquencies  :  and 

*  Zeph.  iii.  3,  4. 


214 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


secondly,  that,  if  they  were  unknown  to  the 
prophets  through  this  long  lapse  of  time,  it 
was  because  they  were  not  committed. 

We  have,  then,  in  the  historic  Moses  a 
great  and  powerful  genius,  an  organizing 
and  constructing  mind.  Degenerate  ages 
cannot  equip  and  furnish  forth  illustrious 
founders,  only  at  the  most  the  names  and 
shadows  of  them.  Moses  belongs  to  the 
class  of  nation-makers  ;  to  a  class  of  men, 
who  have  a  place  by  themselves  in  the 
history  of  politics,  and  who  are  among  the 
rarest  of  the  great  phenomena  of  our  race. 
And  he  stands  in  historic  harmony  with  his 
work.  But  we  are  now  sometimes  asked 
to  sever  the  work  from  the  worker,  and  to 
refer  it  to  some  doubtful  and  nameless  per- 
son ;  whereas  it  is  surely  obvious  or  prob- 
able that  the  author  of  a  work  so  wonderful 
and  so  far  beyond  example,  so  elaborate  in 
its  essential  structure,  and  so  designed  for 
public  use,  could  hardly  fail  to  associate  his 
name  with  it  as  if  written  upon  a  rock,  and 
with  a  pen  of  iron.  For,  be  it  recollected, 
that  name  was  the  seal  and  stamp  of  the 
work  itself  According  to  its  own  testi- 
mony he  was  the  apostolos^^'  the  messenger, 
who  broufjht  it  from  God,  and  sjave  it  to 
the  people.  If  the  use  of  his  name  was  a 
fiction,  it  was  one  of  those  fictions  which 
*  Exod.  xix.  16-25,  3.nd  /lassim. 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


215 


are  falselioods  ;  for  it  altered  essentially  the 
character  of  the  writings  to  which  it  was 
attached. 

Supposing  it  to  be  granted  that  this  or 
that  portion  of  the  Legislative  Books  may- 
have  been  an  addition  in  the  way  of  devel- 
opment, of  an  appendage  and  supplement  to 
a  scheme  already  existing,  how  and  why 
came  it  to  be  placed  under  the  shelter  of 
the  great  name  of  Moses,  but  because  that 
name  had  already  acquired  and  consolidated 
its  authority,  from  its  being  inseparably 
attached  to  the  original  gift  of  the  law  ? 

Even  so  it  was  that,  when  the  great  and 
wonderful  poems  known  as  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey  had  given  to  the  name  of  Homer 
a  surpassing  celebrity,  and  other  works  of 
less  exalted  rank  sought  for  fame  bv  claim- 
ing  him  as  their  author,  the  simple  fact  that 
they  so  claimed  him  of  itself  supplied  the 
proof  that  Homer  was  traditionally,  and 
from  immemorial  time,  taken  to  be  the 
author  of  those  greater  works  at  the  time 
when  the  lesser  ones  were  imputed  to  him. 
If  the  title  of  Mosaic  authorship  was  ever  in 
any  case  attached  to  what  Moses  did  not 
produce,  the  ascription  was  made  in  order 
to  gain  credit  for  the  new  supplemental 
matter,  and  of  itself  proved  that,  at  the  date 
when  it  was  made,  there  was  an  older  and 
immemorial  belief  in  his  being  the  author 


2i6         THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

of  the  work  whereto  the  supplement  was 
appended. 

As  we  stand  on  historical  ground  in 
assuming  that  Moses  was  a  great  man,  and 
a  powerful  agent  in  the  Hebrew  history,  so 
we  stand  on  a  like  basis  in  pointing  to  the 
fact  that,  from  the  Captivity  onwards  (I  say 
nothing  of  the  prior  period,  as  it  would  beg 
the  question),  the  Jewish  nation  paid  to  the 
Five  Books  of  the  Pentateuch  a  special  and 
extraordinary  regard,  even  beyond  the  rest 
of  their  sacred  books.  These  were  known 
as  the  Torah ;  and  the  fact  of  this  special 
reverence  is  one  so  generally  acknowledged, 
that  it  may  without  discussion  be  safely 
assumed  as  a  point  of  departure. 

Before,  then,  any  sort  of  acceptance  or 
acquiescence  is  accorded  to  notions  which 
virtually  consign  to  insignificance  the  most 
ancient  of  our  Sacred  Books,  let  us  well 
weigh  the  fact  that  the  devout  regard  of  the 
Hebrews  for  the  Torah  took  the  form,  at  or 
very  soon  after  the  Exile,  of  an  extreme 
vigilance  on  behalf  of  these  particular  Books 
as  distinct  from  all  others.  This  vigilance, 
which  at  a  later  epoch  reached  its  climax 
under  the  Massoretes,  very  naturally  began, 
or  greatly  advanced,  at  the  time  when  the 
nation,  or  its  leading  classes,  having  for  the 
time  lost  their  temple  and  their  visible 
home,  clung  more  closely  than  ever  to  the 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


217 


■written  word  in  their  Sacred  Books  ;  to  its 
body  either  more,  or  not  less,  than  to  its 
spirit. 

So  early  as  in  the  days  of  Hezekiah,  there 
is  said  to  have  been  a  restorative  process  of 
some  kind  performed  upon  the  text  of  the 
law,  as  well  as  upon  the  temple  and  its 
doors.*  That  clinging  affection  to  the 
Word,  which  the  Captivity  could  not  fail  to 
stimulate  in  pious  minds,  took  effect,  after 
the  Return,  in  the  establishment  of  positive 
institutions  for  its  care  ;  which,  indeed,  had 
become  a  necessity,  in  consequence  of  the 
change  in  the  spoken  language,  unless  it 
were  to  be  wholly  lost  to  the  people.  Hence 
we  have  the  Jewish  tradition  of  a  Great 
Synagogue,  founded  with  this  view.  A  guild 
of  scribes  was  appointed  to  copy,  preserve, 
and  expound  the  Divine  Word,t  and  the 
Canon  of  the  Old  Testament  appears  during 
the  same  period  to  have  assumed  some- 
thing of  a  regular  form.  Soon  grew  up  the 
Massorah,  or  body  of  traditions  concerning 
the  texts  of  the  Torah,  which  is  supposed 
to  have  become  noticeable  from  about 
300  B.  c.,J  and  which  in  after  ages  gave  a 
name  to  the  Massoretes,  official  students 
and  guardians  of  the  text.     This   body  is 

*  Paterson    Smyth,    "The    Old   Documents,"    p.  42. 
2  Chron.  xxix.  3. 

f  Paterson  Smyth,  p.  66.  \  Ibid.  p.  90. 


2i8         THE  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

one  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Its  existence  not  only  afforded 
strong  securities  of  a  special  nature  for  the 
faithful  custody  of  the  text  from  the  date 
when  its  operations  commenced,  but  it  also 
bears  witness  to  a  profound  and  exacting 
veneration  for  the  Ancient  Books  as  such, 
which  seems  to  presuppose  an  unquestion- 
ing traditional  belief  in  their  antiquity  and 
authenticity. 

The  Jews,  perhaps  exclusively  among  the 
early  peoples,  distinguished  broadly  be- 
tween the  matter  and  the  corporeal  form  of 
a  book,  between  its  soul  and  its  body. 
They  alone  conceived  the  idea  of  using  the 
material  form  of  the  words  and  letters  as  an 
instrument  for  ensuring  the  conservation  of 
the  contents.  If  (such  was  their  conception) 
we  secure  the  absolute  identity  of  the  manu- 
scripts, and  reckon  up  the  actual  numbers 
of  the  words  they  contain,  and  of  the  letters 
which  compose  the  words,  then  we  shall 
render  change  in  them  impossible,  and  con- 
servation certain.  Thus,  for  example,  the 
words  in  the  Book  of  Psalms  were  counted, 
and  the  middle  word  of  the  book  was  known. 
The  letters  in  each  word  were  also  counted, 
and  the  middle  letter  was  known.  Rules 
for  writing,  placing,  and  arranging  were  laid 
down  ;  readings  were  noted  as  kJictibh  and 
keri ;  as  what  was  in  the  text,  and  as  what 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


219 


ought  to  be  in  the  text  but,  from  a  reverent 
unwiUingness  to  alter,  only  took  its  place 
upon  the  margin.     The  Hebrews  were  the 
only  people  who  built  up  by  degrees  a  reg- 
ular scientific  method  of  handling  the  mate- 
rial forms   in  which   the  substance  of  their 
Sacred  Books  was  clothed,  and  this  system 
had  begun  to  grow  from  the  time  when  a 
special    reverence   is  known  to  have  been 
concentrated  upon  the  Torah.     I   will  not 
dwell   upon  the  topic  that  this  peculiarity 
of    handling    supplies    of    itself    a    certain 
amount  of  presumption   for  peculiarity  of 
origin.     It  may  have  commenced  before  the 
Captivity.     It  may  have  preceded,  and  may 
in  that  case  probably  have  been  enhanced 
by,  the  division  of  the  kingdoms.     It  must 
have  been  in  great  force   when,  soon  after 
the  Captivity,  schools  of  scribes  were  en- 
trusted with  the  custody  of  the  text  of  the 
law  as  a  study  apart  from  that  of  its  mean- 
ing.    Now,  in  our  time,  we  are  asked   or 
tempted  by  the  negative  criticism  to  believe 
that  all  this  reverence  for  the  Books  of  the 
Pentateuch,  having  primarily  the  sense  for 
its  object,  but  so  abounding  and  overflow- 
ing  as    to    embrace    even    the    corporeal 
vehicle,  was  felt  towards  a  set  of  books  not 
substantially  genuine,  but  compounded  and 
made   up    by   operators,   and   these    recent 
operators,  who  may  be  mildly  called  editors. 


220      ^-^^  MOSAIC  legislation: 

but  who  were  rather  clandestine  authors. 
Is  this  a  probable  or  reasonable  hypothesis? 
Is  it  even  possible  that  these  books  of  recent 
concoction,  standing  by  the  side  of  some 
among  the  prophetical  books  possessing  a 
much  greater  antiquity,  should  nevertheless 
have  attracted  to  themselves,  and  have  per- 
manently retained,  an  exceptional  and 
superlative  veneration,  much  exceeding  that 
paid  to  the  oldest  among  the  Books  of  the 
Prophets,  and  such  as  surely  presumes  a 
belief  in  the  remoteness  of  their  date,  the 
genuineness  of  their  character,  and  their 
title  to  stand  as  the  base,  both  doctrinal  and 
historic,  of  the  entire  Hebrew  system  ? 

The  result  of  this  negative  criticism  ought 
to  be  viewed -m  its  extreme  form,  and  this 
for  several  reasons  :  such  as,  that,  with  the 
lapse  of  time,  it  continually  adopts  new 
negations  ;  that  the  more  conservative  of 
the  latest  schools  exhibit  to  us  no  principle, 
which  separates  them  in  the  mass  from  the 
bolder  disintegration  ;  and  that  what  is  now 
the  Jtltivia  tJude  of  the  system  may,  a  short 
time  hence,  appear  only  to  have  been  a 
stage  on  the  way  to  positions  as  yet  un- 
dreamt of.  So  viewing  the  subject,  do  we 
not  find  that  it  comes  to  this :  not  merely 
that  the  Mosaic  laws  received  secondary 
supplements  or  amendments  from  time  to 
time,  but  that  the  entire  fabric  had  grown 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION.        221 

up  anonymously  as  well  as  recently,  and 
that  it  rests  upon  no  guarantee  whatever, 
either  of  time,  or  of  place,  or  of  personal 
authority  ? 

I  have  already  endeavored  to  show  the 
historic  improbability  that  an  upstart  pro- 
duction could  have  leaped  into  an  estima- 
tion such  as  belongs  to  a  firm  tradition  and 
a  general  credit  of  antiquity.  And  now  let 
us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  rather  crude 
and  irregular  form  of  the  Mosaic  Books 
from  Exodus  to  Deuteronomy.  Taken  as 
a  whole,  they  have  not  that  kind  of  con- 
sistency which  belongs  to  consecutiveness 
of  the  parts,  and  which  almost  uniformly 
marks  both  historical  and  legal  documents.* 
They  mix  narrative  and  legislation :  they 
pass  from  one  to  the  other  without  any 
obvious    reason.     They    repeat   themselves 

*  "  As  to  this  want  of  order  (which  seems  to  me  to 
favor  the  idea  of  contemporaneity),  a  later  codifier  would 
have  been  more  artificial  in  his  arrangement"  (Milman's 
"  History  of  the  Jews,"  3rd  Edition,  1863),  Writing  of 
the  delivery  of  the  law,  the  learned  and  very  liberal- 
minded  Dean  Milman  had  before  him  the  works  of  the 
critical  school  down  to  Bleek;  and  in  the  admirable  note 
(i.  131)  from  which  I  have  just  quoted  a  few  words,  he 
expresses  a  firm  and  reasoned  dissent  from  the  negative 
conclusions  as  to  the  Pentateuch  in  its  substance,  while 
he  strongly  urges  the  likelihood  of  minor  changes  in  the 
text  with  anachronism  and  inaccuracy  here  and  there  as 
the  consequence.  This  note  is  in  effect  a  succinct  but 
highly  pregnant  treatise,  and  will  well  repay  those  who 
carefully  peruse  it. 


222         ^-^-^   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

in  a  manner  which  seems  to  exclude  the 
idea  that  they  had  undergone  the  careful 
and  reflected  reviews,  the  comparison  of 
part  with  part,  which  is  generally  bestowed 
upon  works  of  great  importance,  completed 
with  comparative  leisure,  and  intended  for 
the  guidance  not  only  of  an  individual  but 
of  a  people.  They  are  even  accused  of 
contradiction.  They  appear  to  omit  adjust- 
ments, necessary  in  the  light  of  the  subse- 
quent history :  such,  for  instance,  as  we 
might  desire  between  the  sweeping  proscrip- 
tion not  only  of  image  worship,  but  of 
images  or  shapen  corporeal  forms,  in  the 
Second  Commandment,  and  the  use  actually 
made  of  them  in  the  temple,  and  in  the 
singular  case  of  the  serpent  destroyed  by 
Hezekiah.*  It  seems  not  difficult  to  account 
for  this  roughness  and  crudeness  of  author- 
ship in  the  case  of  Moses,  under  the  circum- 
stances of  changeful  nomad  life,  and  the 
constant  pressure  of  anxious  executive  or 
judicial  functions,  combined  with  the  effort 
of  constructing  a  weighty  legislative  code, 
which  required  a  totally  different  attitude 
of  nund.  The  life  of  Moses,  as  it  stands  ia 
the  sacred  text,  must  have  been  habitually 
a  life  of  extraordinary,  unintermitted  strain, 
and  one  without  remission  of  that  strain 
even   during  its  closing  period.     As  some 

*2  Kings  xviii.  4. 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


223 


anomalies  in  the  composition  of  the  Koran 
may  be  referable  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  life  of  Mahomet,*  so  we  may  apply  a 
like  idea  to  the  configuration  of  the  Legis- 
lative Books.  It  is  not  difficult  to  refer  the 
anomalies  of  such  authorship  to  the  inci- 
dents of  such  a  life,  and  to  conceive  that 
any  changes,  which  have  found  their  way 
into  the  text,  may  yet  have  been  such  as  to 
leave  unimpaired  what  may  be  called  the 
originality,  as  well  as  the  integrity,  of  its 
character.  But  how  do  these  considerations 
hold,  if  we  are  to  assume  as  our  point  of 
departure  the  hypothesis  of  the  negative 
extremists  ?  Under  that  supposition,  the 
Legislative  Books  were  principally  not  ad- 
justed but  composed,  and  this  not  only  in 
a  manner  which  totally  falsifies  their  own 
solemn  and  often  repeated  declarations,  but 
which  supposes  something  like  hallucina- 
tion on  the  part  of  a  people  that  could  have 

*  See  Rodwell's  Preface  to  the  Koran  respecting  the 
Suras.  A  critic  in  the  Magazine  ami  Book  Review  has 
cited  against  me  tlie  fourteenth  chapter  of  Esdras  ii., 
and  the  strange  story  it  contains  of  the  burning  of  the 
law  and  the  rewriting  of  it  by  Ezra.  This  story  dates  at 
the  earliest  from  the  time  of  Ceesar,  according  to  others 
from  Domitian.  Thus  a  tale  which  first  appears  five 
centuries  after  the  alleged  fact  at  once  becomes  authori- 
tative, if  it  serves  a  purpose  of  negation.  But  even  this 
story  supports  the  argument  in  the  text,  for  the  law  is 
continuously  and  miraculously  reproduced  by  dictation 
to  a  body  of  five  scribes. 


224 


THE  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


accepted  such  novelties,  and  almost  wor- 
shipped them,  as  ancient.  In  addition  to 
all  this,  they  assumed  their  existing  shape, 
so  wanting  as  to  series  and  method,  in  a 
settled  state  of  things,  in  an  old  historic 
land,  with  an  unbounded  freedom  of  ma- 
nipulation, at  any  rate  with  no  restraint  im- 
posed by  respect  for  original  form,  and  with 
every  condition  in  favor  of  the  final  editors, 
which  could  favor  the  production  of  a 
thoroughly  system.atic  and  orderly  work. 
Does  it  not  seem  that  if  the  preparation 
and  presentation  of  the  Hebrew  code  took 
place  at  the  time  and  in  the  way  imposed 
on  us  by  the  doctrine  of  the  thorough  dis- 
integrationist,  then  we  stand  entirely  at  a 
loss  to  account  for  the  somewhat  loose  and 
irregular  form  of  the  work  before  us  ?  And 
conversely  do  not  the  peculiarities  of  that 
form  constitute  an  objection  to  the  negative 
hypothesis,  which  it  is  an  absolute  necessity 
for  its  promoters  to  get  rid  of  as  best  they 
can  ? 

Let  me  again  illustrate  the  case  by  refer- 
ring to  the  Iliad.  Those  who  have  referred 
that  work  to  a  variety  of  authors,  have  been 
driv^en  to  very  subtle  and  questionable  argu- 
ments in  order  to  exhibit  some  semblance 
of  anomalv  in  the  text,  and  have  alwavs 
been  allowed  to  assume  that  the  final 
editors  under  Pericles,  or  at  whatever  epoch. 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


225 


wrought  with  energy  and  purpose  to  weld 
the  fragmentary  material  into  a  seemly 
whole.  Is  it  conceivable  that  an  operation 
such  as  we  are  now  required  to  believe  in 
could  have  been  carried  on  without  the 
sense  of  a  similar  necessity,  or  could  so 
absolutely  have  failed  in  literary  aim  and 
effort  ? 

I  subjoin  one  further  topic  of  the  same 
class,  as  fit  to  be  taken  into  view.  The 
absence  from  the  Legislative  Books  of  all 
assertion  of  a  future  state,  and  of  all  motive 
derived  from  it  with  a  \'iew  to  conduct,  has 
been  already  noticed.  The  probable  reason 
of  that  absence  from  a  code  of  laws  framed 
by  Moses  under  divine  command  or  guid- 
ance, is  a  subject  alike  of  interest  and  diffi- 
culty. It  has  sometimes  occurred  to  me  as 
possible  that  the  close  connection  of  the 
doctrine  with  public  religion  in  the  Eg\'ptian 
system  might  have  supplied  a  reason  for  its 
disconnection  from  the  Mosaic  laws  *  even 
as  I  suppose  we  might,  from  other  features 
of  those  laws,  draw  proof  or  strong  pre- 
sumption that,  among  the  purposes  of  the 
legislator,  there  was  included  a  determina- 
tion to  draw  a  broad  and  deep  line,  or  even 
trench  of  demarcation,  between  the  foreign 
religions  in  the  neighborhood  and  the  relig- 

*This  topic   is  touched    by  Bishop  Alexander  in  his 
Bampton  Lectures. 

15 


226         THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION: 

ious  system  of  the  Hebrews.  The  connec- 
tion established  by  Moses  between  conduct 
and  earthly  retribution  or  reward,  must  of 
itself  have  tended  to  depress,  if  not  the  idea 
of  a  future  state,  yet  the  expression  of  that 
idea  in  public  documents.  Especially  we 
should  remember  that  the  work  of  Moses 
was  national  rather  than  theological.*  His 
theology  is  a  means  of  conserving  the 
nationality,  which  was  itself  a  forerunner 
and  a  means  of  preparation  for  the  Advent. 
It  is  enough  for  my  present  purpose,  that 
the  absence  of  the  doctrine  of  a  future  state 
from  the  work  cannot  be  held  to  discredit 
the  Mosaic  authorship.  But  does  not  that 
absence  help  discredit  the  idea  of  a  post- 
exilic  authorship?  Is  it  conceivable  that 
Hebrews,  proceeding  to  frame  their  Legis- 
lative Books,  after  the  Captivity,  and  long 
after  the  Dispersion  of  the  Ten  Tribes,  and 
after  the  light  which  these  events  had 
thrown  upon  the  familiar  ideas  of  a  future  life 
and  an  Underworld,  as  held  both  in  the 
East  and  in  Egypt,  could  have  excluded  all 
notice  of  it  from  their  system  of  laws  ?  We 
see  something  of  this  influence,  in  the  noble 
passage  on  the  dead,  Wisdom  iii.  i-8,  to 
which  there  is  no  parallel  in  any  of  the  pre- 
exilic  books.     If  it  was  an  influence  impos- 

*  See    Zincke,  "  Egypt  of  the  Pharaohs  and  of  the 
Khedive,"  p.  202, 


THE    MOSAIC  LEGISLATION.        22/ 

sible  to  exclude  at  the  later  date,  then  the 
fact  of  the  exclusion  becomes  another  diffi- 
culty in  the  way  of  our  accepting  any  such 
.  date  concerning  the  substance  of  the  Legis- 

■  lative  Books. 

It  seems,  then,  that  it  is  difficult  to  recon- 

■  cile  the  results  of  the  negative  criticism  on 
*  the  Pentateuch  with  the  known  reverence 

of  the  Jews  for  their  Torah,  which  appears 
absolutely  to  presuppose  a  tradition  of  im- 
memorial age  on  its  behalf,  as  a  precondi- 
tion of  such  universal  and  undoubting  vene- 
ration.    But  if  this  be  necessary  in  the  case 
of  the  Jew,  how  much  more  peremptorily  is 
it  required  by  the  Samaritan  contribution  to 
the  present  argument,  and  what  light  does 
that  case  throw  upon  the  general  question? 
It  seems  certain  that  in  mediaeval  times, 
and  until  the  seventeenth  century,  Christen- 
dom knew  nothing  of  a  Samaritan  testimony 
to   the  authenticity  of  the  Mosaic  Books, 
excepting  from   certain  slight  references  in 
the  works  of  the  Fathers  to  "  the  ancient 
Hebrew     according    to    the    Samaritans." 
But,  early    in    the    seventeenth    century,  a 
traveller  found,  among  the  Samaritans   of 
Damascus,  a  copy  of  the  Pentateuch  in  the 
ancient   Hebrew   letters,  and   we    are    told 
that  there  are  now  about  sixteen  of  these 
manuscripts  in  the  various  European  libra- 
ries.    The  chief  one  in  existence  is  guarded 


228         THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

with  sacred  care  at  Nablous,  the  ancient 
Shechem,  by  a  congregation  still  surviving 
of  a  few  hundred  Samaritans.*  For  ques- 
tions of  textual  accuracy,  this  work  is 
esteemed  inferior  to  the  Hebrew,  though  it 
is  not  wholly  without  a  claim  to  more 
archaic  forms. 

The  Samaritan  Pentateuch  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  monuments  of  antiquity. 
Its  testimony,  of  course,  cannot  be  adduced 
to  show  that  the  Books  following  the  Penta- 
teuch have  been  clothed  from  a  very  ancient 
date  with  the  reverence  due  to  the  Divine 
Word  ;  indeed,  it  is  even  capable  of  being 
employed,  in  a  limited  measure,  the  other 
way.  But  as  respects  the  Samaritan  Penta- 
teuch itself,  how  is  it  possible  to  conceive 
that  it  should  have  held  as  a  Divine  work 
the  supreme  place  in  the  regard  of  the 
Samaritans,  if,  about  or  near  the  year 
500  B.  c.t  or,  still  more,  if  at  the  time  of 
Manasseh  the  seceder|  it  had  as  matter 
of  fact,  been  a  recent  compilation  of  their 
enemies  the  Jews  ?  or  if  it  had  been  re- 
garded as  anything  less  than  a  record  of  a 
great  revelation  from  God,  historically 
known,  or  at  the  least  universally  believed, 

*  See  Paterson  Smyth,  p.  1 18. 
f  Paterson  Smyth,  p.  49. 

X  Placed  by  Wellhausen  at  about  375  B.  c.  "  Hist. 
Israel,"  (Black),  p.  498. 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


229. 


to  have  come  down  to  them  in  the  shape  it 
then  held  from  antiquity  ?  Be  it  remem- 
bered that  this  work  itself,  and  an  approxi- 
mate date  for  its  known  existence,  are  not 
matters  of  mere  speculation,  but  are  ac- 
cepted results  of  historical  research.  And 
it  is  in  this  as  in  other  cases  a  matter  for 
serious  consideration,  whether  we  can 
accept  the  ingenious  conclusions  of  critics 
before  we  know  whether  they  are  to  be 
shattered  and  shivered  when  flung  against 
the  face  of  the  strong  rock  of  history. 

The  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  then,  forms 
in  itself  a  remarkable  indication,  nay,  even 
a  proof,  that,  at  the  date  from  which  we 
know  it  to  have  been  received,  the  Penta- 
teuch was  no  novelty  among  the  Jews. 
But  may  we  not  state  the  argument  in 
broader  terms  ?  Surely  the  reverence  of 
the  Samaritans  for  the  Torah  could  not 
have  begun  at  this  period  ;  hardly  could 
have  had  its  first  beginning  at  any  period 
posterior  to  the  schism.  If  these  Books 
grew  by  gradual  accretion,  still  that  must 
have  been  an  accretion  gathering  round  the 
work  within  a  single  channel.  A  double 
process  could  not  have  been  carried  on  in 
harmony.  Nor  can  we  easily  suppose  that, 
when  the  Ten  tribes  separated  from  the 
Two,  they  did  not  carry  with  them  the  law, 
on  which  their  competing  worship  was  to 


230        ^"-^^   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

be  founded.  In  effect,  is  there  any  rational 
supposition  except  that  the  kingdom  of 
Israel  had  possessed  at  the  time  of  Reho- 
boam  some  code  corresponding  in  substance, 
in  all  except  pure  detail,  with  that  which 
was  subsequently  written  out  in  the  famous 
manuscripts  we  now  possess? 

I  have  not  attempted  in  these  essays  to 
discuss  the  general  credit  of  the  Historic 
Books ;  yet,  in  connection  with  the  Samar- 
itans, I  must  here  touch  briefly  on  a  single 
point.  The  negative  critics  are  fairly  chal- 
lenged to  explain  to  us  how  it  is  that  priestly 
fabricators,  writing  at  a  late  date  in  the  inter- 
est of  their  order,  have  so  notably  abstained 
from  endeavors  to  glorify  its  virtues  and 
honors,  or  to  conceal  its  lapses  from  right. 
In  a  yet  wider  view  we  may  ask  how  it  has 
come  about,  that  they  have  entirely  avoided 
attempts  to  magnify  the  religious  responsi- 
bilities of  the  schism  which  divided  Israel, 
It  seems  indeed  strange  that  if  these  Books 
were  in  substance  framed  after  the  Exile, 
and  in  times  when  a  spirit  of  rigorous  uni- 
formity prevailed,  a  more  emphatic  and  dis- 
tinct censure  should  not  have  passed  upon 
Jeroboam,  on  the  simple  ground  of  his 
having  established  a  separate  and  rival 
worship. 

The  man  of  God,  who  came  from  Judah, 
did  indeed  testify  against  the  altar  in  Bethel; 


THE  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


231 


but  that  altar  was  associated  with  the  golden 
calf  established  and  worshipped  there  (as 
well  as  in  Dan)  by  Jeroboam  ;  and  the  testi- 
mony of  the  prophet,  or  man  of  God,  against 
this  altar,  embraced  "  all  the  houses  of  the 
high  places  which  are  in  the  cities  of  Sama- 
ria," and  was  therefore  a  testimony  against 
idolatry,  not  against  mere  schism.*  The 
special  sin  of  Jeroboam,  which  caused  his 
house  to  be  cut  off,  was  not  that  he  divided 
Israel,  but  that  he  degraded  its  religion  by 
making  priests  of  the  lowest  of  the  people. f 
Nay,  the  Books  present  to  us  the  two  illus- 
trious prophets,  Elijah  and  Elisha,  as  having 
Israel  for  their  field,  and  as  working  there 
not  on  behalf  of  the  Levitical  priesthood, 
but  on  behalf  of  righteousness  as  against 
sin,  and  of  God  as  against  Baal ;  in  com- 
plete conformity  with  the  spirit  of  the  pro- 
phetic Books,  which  so  largely  concern  the 
ten  tribes.  How  is  it  conceivable  that  men 
wicked  enough  to  forge  should  so  carefully 
have  eschewed  gathering  any  fruits  from 
their  forgery  ? 

Let  us  close  this  portion  of  the  subject 
with  a  plea  of  a  different  order,  one  which, 
admitting  probable  imperfection  in  the  text, 
deprecates,  as  opposed  to  the  principles  of 
sound  criticism,  any  conclusion  therefrom 
adverse  to  its  general  fidelity.  It  has  caused 
*  I  Kings  xii.  28,  29,  32 ;  xiii.  32.     f  i  Kings  xiii.  ^t^. 


232 


THE   MOSAIC  legislation: 


me  some  surprise  to  notice  (i)  that  some 
negative  writers  lay  considerable  stress  upon 
what  they  deem  to  be  numerical  errors  in 
the  Books  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  (2) 
that,  so  far  as  I  have  seen,  they  do  not  advert 
to  the  increased  risks  of  mistake  in  the 
transmission  of  numbers  as  compared  with 
other  literary  matter,  whether  it  be  by  copy- 
ing, or  by  word  of  mouth. 

The  increased  risk,  which  accompanies 
all  recording  of  numbers,  extends  likewise 
to  enumerations,  such  as  genealogical  or 
other  recitals  of  names  in  lists  ;  subject, 
however,  to  the  remark  that,  where  metre 
is  used,  inasmuch  as  it  supplies  a  frame- 
work for  particular  words  which  would 
not  apply  to  other  words,  the  danger  is 
proportionably  less  ;  and  also  that,  where 
the  record  is  by  writing  and  not  by  simple 
hearing,  the  eye  has  the  opportunity  of 
traversing  again  and  again  the  names,  as 
the  mechanical  process  is  carried  on;  and 
these  names  will  in  many  cases  stand  in 
connection  with,  and  so  be  seen  to  check, 
one  another. 

Bishop  Colenso,  for  example,  lays  very 
great  stress  on  the  numbers  assigned  by  the 
Old  Testament  to  the  children  of  Israel  on 
their  passage  through  the  desert,  and  ob- 
serv^ing  on  the  practical  difficulties  which 
such  a   multitude    must    encounter    on    a 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION.        233 

march  treats  the  case  as  one  which  ma- 
terially impugns  the  general  credit  of  the 
history.* 

I  suppose  that  those  who  are  practically 
conversant  with  the  movement  of  men  in 
large  bodies  may  be  much  inclined  to  fol- 
low Colenso  in  questioning  the  statements 
of  numbers,  both  at  that  point  of  their 
history,,  and  in  many  other  places  of  the 
narrative.  It  is  quite  another  question 
whether,  because  errors  may  have  crept 
into  the  numbers,  the  recitals  of  facts  gen- 
erally are  therefore  untrustworthy. 

There  is  a  broad  and  clear  difference,  of 
which  note  ought  to  be  taken.  Both  in 
coyping  and  in  original  composition,  as  a 
general  rule,  the  structure  of  the  sentence, 
or  what  is  called  the  context,  is  mentally 
carried  onwards,  and  the  general  drift  con- 
fines within  narrow  limits  the  possibility  of 
error  in  the  particular  words.  Mistake  in 
the  form  would  very  commonly  betray 
itself  by  inconsistency  in  the  sense,  and  this 
inconsistency  would  not  fail  to  be  detected, 
because  the' relation  between  the  parts  of 
the  sentence  is  ordinarily  perceived  as  the 
process  is  carried  on.  But  the  relation  be- 
tween numerical  amounts  is  not  at  once  de- 
termined for  the  copyist  by  the  context,  and 

*  See    Colenso  on  the   Pentateuch  and  Joshua,  part 
I,  ch.  xii.,  et  alibi. 


234         '^^^  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 

usually  requires  a  distinct  and  careful  ex- 
amination to  detect  it. 

I  will  give  two  practical  illustrations  of 
this  statement,  the  one  very  old  and  the 
other  very  modern;  the  one  touching  oral, 
and  the  other  written  transmission. 

The  most  elaborate  invocation  of  the 
Muse,  or  appeal  for  divine  assistance,  in  the 
whole  of  the  Poems  of  Homer,  is  the 
Preface*  to  the  Catalogue  of  the  Greek 
troops  and  ships  ;  and  this,  although  in  no 
part  of  the  poems  could  less  of  effort 
properly  poetic  be  required.  But  the  Cata- 
logue consists  partly  of  numerical  state- 
ments of  the  strength  of  the  contingents 
which  made  up  the  fleet,  partly  of  geograph- 
ical detail  of  the  names  of  towns  and  dis- 
tricts ;  and  here  we  find  the  rationale  of  the 
poet's  call  for  special  aid  from  heaven,  and 
for  his  care  with  a  view  to  accuracy,  and 
this  although  he  had  metre  to  assist  him. 

I  now  turn  to  very  modern  practice.  In 
the  year  1853,  it  was  my  duty  for  the  first 
time  to  submit  to  Parliament  one  of  the 
large  and  complex  statements  of  the  public 
accounts  for  the  year,  which  are  associated 
in  our  country  with  the  familiar  name  of 
the  Budget.  The  speeches,  in  which  these 
statements  were  contained,  were  made 
known  to  the  country  by  reporting  in  the 
*  II.  ii.  484-93. 


THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


235 


usual  manner.  But  the  art  of  the  reporters 
could  not  be  trusted  to  convey  the  figures 
with  accuracy  by  the  ear.  A  practice  had 
consequently  grown  up  of  supplying  them 
from  the  proper  official  source  in  carefully 
written  statements  for  their  guidance,  which 
were  sent  to  them  during  the  delivery  of 
the  speech.  It  has  now  been  found  more 
convenient  not  to  trust  at  all  to  the  ear,  and 
the  Minister  is  understood  to  speak  from 
printed  figures:  but  this  in  no  way  weakens 
the  illustration  I  have  used. 

My  position  amounts  to  but  does  not  go 
beyond  this,  that  the  same  care,  which 
ensures  general  fidelity  of  statement  in  or- 
dinary recitals  of  fact,  does  not  suffice  to 
secure  numerical  precision;  and  conversely 
that  the  want  of  such  precision,  which  may 
sometimes  be  suspected  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, does  not  raise  presumptions  adverse 
to  general  correctness. 

The  necessary  limits  of  this  essay  do  not 
permit  of  my  entering  on  the  contents  of 
the  Mosaic  legislation.  It  is,  I  apprehend, 
both  far  more  complex  and  far  deeper  than 
the  other  systems  of  ancient  law  known  to 
us,  as  well  as  far  higher  in  its  moral  aims. 
I  humbly  recommend  that  those  who  read 
it  should  fix  their  minds  upon  the  skill  with 
which  it  is  addressed  to  the  attainment  of 
ends  of  such  a  nature  as  to  render  them,  in 


236         THE   MOSAIC  LEGISLATIOiV. 

their  ordinary  aspects,  hardly  reconcilable 
with  one  another.  Severely  proscriptive 
of  the  stranger,  namely,  the  nations  whom 
it  found  in  possession  of  Canaan,  it  is  as 
singularly  liberal  and  generous  towards  him 
when  he  has  made  his  peace  with  Hebrew- 
ism. Again,  the  Pentateuchal  code  differs 
from  (I  believe)  all  others  in  the  extraordi- 
nary amount  of  its  sanitary  legislation,  and 
in  investing  it  with  a  quasi-moral  character. 
But  a  sense  of  some  strangeness  in  this 
respect  alters  into  a  profound  admiration 
of  the  sagacity  which  includes  in  its  far- 
reaching  view  provisions  for  giving  an 
exceptionally  high  character  even  to  the 
physical  constitution  of  a  people  that  was 
meant  to  remain  socially  separate  from  the 
nations  of  the  world.  Again:  while  aiming 
much  at  equality,  simplicity,  and  industry, 
as  fountains  of  order  and  of  strength,  it 
embodies  most  peculiar  regulations  for  the 
purpose  of  restraining  within  the  narrowest 
limits  both  that  growth  of  wealth,  which  is 
their  natural  result ;  and  also  the  spirit  of 
enterprise,  which  would  have  burst  pre- 
maturely the  narrow  bounds  of  Palestine, 
and  destroyed  the  seclusion  of  the  chosen 
people  by  untimely  contact  with  the  nations 
of  the  world.  The  design  seemingly  was 
to  repress  the  latent  powers  of  human 
nature,  and  to  secure  a  conservative,  even  a 


THE  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


237 


stationary  community,  changeless  as  the 
truths  of  which  it  was  the  guardian.  The 
completeness  of  the  severance  was  not  im- 
paired by  the  Captivity  and  Dispersion  of 
Israel,  or  by  the  Exile  of  the  Jews  in 
Babylon,  or  by  the  creation  of  Jewish  fac- 
tories abroad,  or  by  the  final  destruction  of 
the  political  independence  of  the  country, 
or  by  the  invasion  and  supremacy  of  the 
Greek  language.  The  Jew,  when  our  Lord 
came,  was  still,  and  was  even  more  than 
ever,  the  Jew;  and  so,  though  it  may  have 
been  despite  of  himself,  the  purpose  of  his 
great  stewardship  was  accomplished. 


On  the  Recent  Corroborations  of 

Scripture  from  tlie  Regions  of 

History  and  Natural 

Science. 


On  the    Recent  Corroborations  of 

Scripture  from  the  Regions  of 

History  and  Natural 

Science. 

I.  preliminary;  ii.  as  to  the  creation 
story;  hi.  as  to  the  flood  story; 
IV.  AS  to  the  great  dispersion;  v. 
AS  to  the  sinaitic  journey. 

IT  is  to  be  observed,  that  many  of  the 
favorite  subjects  of  scientific  or  sys- 
tematic thought  in  the  present  day  are  of  a 
nature  powerfully  tending  to  reinforce  or 
illustrate  the  arguments  available  for  the 
proof  of  religion,  and  for  the  authority  of 
Scripture.  If  it  had  been  actually  proved, 
as  it  is  largely  argued  and  seriously  held, 
that  the  vast  and  diversified  scheme  of 
organic  life  throughout  the  world  has  been 
evolved  from  a  few  simple  types  or  possibly 
from  one,  such  a  demonstration  would  both 
enlarge  and  confirm  the  great  argument  of 
i6  (241) 


242 


RECENT  CORR OB  ORA  TIO NS 


design.  For  this  argument,  instead  of  be- 
ing drawn  from  particular  and  separate  con- 
structions, would  then  be  drawn  from  the 
entire  scheme  of  creation,  and  from  the 
relation  of  all  its  parts  to  one  another,  inas- 
much as  every  earlier  portion  of  it  would 
be  an  indication,  and  therefore  a  prediction, 
of  all  those  which  were  to  succeed  ;  the  seed 
of  a  long  series  of  harvests  to  come.  *'  Day 
unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and  night  unto 
night  showeth  knowledge."  * 

Again,  the  formal  treatment  in  recent 
years  of  the  subject  of  heredity  not  only 
tends  to  link  the  generations  of  mankind  in 
one,  but,  in  proving  that  our  nature  under- 
goes incessant  modification  through  the 
influence  of  progenitors,  enlarges  our  con- 
ception of  the  width  of  its  range,  and  the 
varieties  of  those  forms  which  it  is  capable 
of  assuming.  It  shows  us,  for  example,  how 
the  nature,  as  well  as  the  environment,  of 
descendants  is  deteriorated  by  the  fault  of 
ancestors,  and  how  there  may  have  been  an 
education  of  the  race  from  childhood  to 
maturity,  or  some  converse  process  of  de- 
cay. Thus  the  doctrine  of  birth-sin,  as  it 
is  sometimes  called,  is  simply  the  recog- 
nition of  the  hereditary  disorder  and  de- 
generacy of  our  natures;  and,  of  all  men, 
the  evolutionist  would  find  it  most  difficult 

*  Ps.  xix.  2. 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


243 


to  establish  a  title  to  object  to  it  in  prin- 
ciple. 

On  these  grounds,  and  on   others  more 
specific  which   it  will  be  the    aim   of  this 
essay  to   set  forth   in   given    instances,  we 
should  dispel  wholly  from  our  minds  those* 
spectral  notions  of  antagonism  between  re-  j' 
lieion  and  science,  which  have  been  raised 
tip  by  the  action   of  prejudice  on   the  one  • 
side,  and  perhaps  by  the  occasional  practice 
of  bragging  on  the  other.     Of  religion  and 
of  science,  as  of  man  and  wife,  let  us  boldly 
say,  "What  God  hath  joined,  let  not  man 
put  asunder."     But  I  proceed  to  particular 
illustrations. 

II. — ■k'S>   TO    THE    CREATION    STORY. 

A  double  confirmation  has,  I  conceive,  ii% 
■our  time  been  supplied  to  the  Creation 
Story  of  Genesis ;  the  first  by  natural,  and 
the  second  by  historic  science. 

Perhaps  we  have  been  too  readily  satis- 
fied with  assuming,  in  regard  to  this  narra- 
tive, a  defensive  position  ;  whereas  it  may 
be  found  to  contain  within  its  own  brief 
compass,  when  rightly  considered,  the 
guarantee  of  a  Divine  communication  to  , 
man  strictly  corresponding  with  what  in 
familiar  speech  is  termed  Revelation. 

We  have  here    inf   outline    a    primordial 


244        KE.CEi\T  CORROBORATIOXS 

history  of  the  planet  which  we  inhabit,  and 
of  the  celestial  system  to  which  it  belongs. 
Of  the   planet,  and  of  the   first   appearance 
and  early  developments  of  life  upon  it,  an- 
,    terior  to  the  creation  of  man,  in  many  of 
f;'  the  principal  stages  which  have  been  ascer- 
(    tained  by  geology.     Of  the  celestial  organ- 
'\  ization  to  which  our  earth  belongs,  whether 
.    in  all  its  vastness  or  only  within  the  limits 
of  the   solar  system  we  may  be   unable  to 
say ;  but,  at  the  least,  a  sketch  of  the  forma- 
tion of  that  system  from  a  prior  and  unad- 
justed or  chaotic  state.     Upon  such  a  docu- 
ment a  sharp  issue  is  at  once  raised,  at  least 
as  to  the  latter  or  strictly  terrestrial  part  of 
it,  the  earth-history,  for  all   those  who  hold 
it -to  be   in   its   substance  a    true   account. 
We  accept  from  Science,  as  demonstrated, 
a    series    of    geological    conclusions.     We 
have  found  the  geology  of  Genesis  to  stand 
in  such  a  relation  to  these  conclusions,  as 
could  not  have  been  exhibited  in  a  record 
framed  by  faculties  merely  human,  at  any 
date   to  which  the  origin   of  the   Creation 
Story    can     now    reasonably    be     referred. 
Starting    from    this    premise,    we    have    no 
';  means  of   avoiding  or  holding    back  from 
%  the    conclusion    that    the    materials  of  the 
r  story   could    not    have    been    had    without 
preterhuman  aid ;    and    such   preterhuman 
aid    is    what   we   term   Divine   Revelation, 


OF  SCRIPTURE.  245 

And  if  the  time  shall  ever  come  when  as- 
tronomers shall  be  in  a  condition  to  apply 
to  the  earlier  portion  of  the  chapter  the 
demonstrative  methods,  which  geology  has 
found  for  the  latter  part,  it  may  happen  that 
we  shall  owe  a  debt  of  the  same  kind,  and 
of  as  great  amount,  to  astronomy,  as  we 
now  owe  to  geologic  science.  My  present 
purpose  is  to  call  particular  attention  to  the 
exact  nature  and  extraordinary  amount  of 
that  debt. 

There  was  nothing  necessarily  unreason- 
able in  accepting  as  worthy  of  belief  this 
portion  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  along  with 
the  rest  of  the  Book,  and  with  other  books 
of  Holy  Scripture,  on  general  proofs  of 
their  inspiration,  if  sufficient,  apart  from 
any  independent  buttress  furnished  either 
by  science  or  by  history  for  the  Creation 
Story.  In  a  court  of  justice,  the  evidence 
of  a  witness  is  to  be  accepted  on  matters 
within  his  cognizance,  when  it  is  consistent 
with  itself,  and  when  neither  his  character 
nor  his  intelligence  are  questioned  ;  or  again, 
when  the  main  part  of  a  continuous  narra- 
tive is  sufficiently  verified,  it  may  be  right 
to  accept  the  rest  without  separate  verifica- 
tion. If,  however,  a  new  witness  comes 
into  court,  and  pretends  to  give  us  fresh 
and  scientific  proof  of  the  Creation  Story, 
this  may  be  true  or  may  be  false.     If  false, 


246 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


the  story  is  not  disproved ;  it  stands  where 
it  stood  before.  Bad  arguments  are  often 
made  for  a  good  cause.  But  if  true,  the 
event  is  one  of  vast  importance. 

Now  the  present  position  is  as  follows. 
Apart  altogether  from  faith,  and  from  the 
general  evidences  of  Revelation,  a  new  wit- 
ness has  come  into  the  court,  in  the  shape 
of  Natural  Science.  She  builds  up  her  sys- 
tem on  the  observation  of  facts,  and  upon 
inferences  from  them,  which  at  length  attain 
to  a  completeness  and  security  such  as,  if 
not  presenting  us  with  a  demonstration  in 
the  strictest  sense,  yet  constrain  us,  as  in- 
telligent beings,  to  belief 

The  Creation  Story  divides  itself  into  the 
cosmological  portion,  occupying  the  first 
nineteen  verses  of  the  Chapter,  and  the 
geological  portion,  which  is  given  in  the 
last  twelve.  The  former  part  has  less,  and 
the  latter  part  has  more,  to  do  with  the 
direct  evidence  of  fact,  and  the  stringency 
of  the  authority  which  the  two  may  severally 
claim  varies  accordingly;  but  in  both  the 
narrative  seems  to  demand,  upon  the  evi- 
dence as  it  stands,  rational  assent.  In  regard 
to  both,  it  is  held  on  the  affirmative  side 
that  the  statements  of  Genesis  have  a  certain 
relation  both  to  the  ascertained  facts  and  ta 
the  best  accepted  reasonings;  and  that  this 
relation  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to  require  us. 


OF  SCRIPTURE.  247 

in  the  character  of  rational  investigators,  to 
acknowledge  in  the  written  record  the 
presence  of  elements  which  must  be  referred 
to  a  superhuman  origin.  If  this  be  so,  then 
be  it  observed  that  natural  science  is  now 
rendering  a  new  and  enormous  service  to 
the  great  cause  of  belief  in  the  unseen;  and 
is  underpinning,  so  to  speak,  the  structure 
of  that  divine  revelation,  which  was  con- 
tained in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  by  a  new 
and  solid  pillar,  built  up,  on  a  foundation 
of  its  own,  from  beneath. 

It  is,  then,  to  be  borne  in  mind  that,  as 
against  those  who  by  arbitrary  or  irrational 
interpretation,  place  Genesis  and  science  at 
essential  variance,  our  position  is  not  one 
merely  defensive.  We  are  not  mere  recon- 
cilers, as  some  call  us,  searching  out  expedi- 
ents to  escape  a  difficulty,  to  repel  an  assault. 
We  seek  to  show,  and  we  may  claim  to  have 
shown,  that  the  account  recorded  in  the 
Creation  Story  for  the  instruction  of  all 
ages  has  been  framed  on  the  principles 
which,  for  such  an  account,  reason  recom- 
mends ;  and  that,  interpreted  in  this  view, 
its  entry  into  the  argument  is  at  this  juncture 
like  the  arrival  of  a  new  auxiliary  army  in 
the  field  while  the  battle  is  in  progress ;  like 
the  arrival,  to  choose  an  historical  instance, 
of  the  Prussians  at  Waterloo. 

Such     is     the     confirmatory     argument 


248        RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 

founded  upon  the  contents.  But  now,  yet 
another  ally  has  come  to  join  our  ranks,  un- 
der the  title  of  Archaeologic  and  Historic 
Science.  It  has  deciphered  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions,  and  has  read  among  them  a 
Creation  Story  inscribed  on  the  tablets  found 
at  Nineveh.  Here  we  have  a  new  witness 
to  the  very  early  existence,  among  civilized 
or  partly  civilized  men,  of  records  of  crea- 
tion corresponding  in  very  essential  partic- 
ulars with  the  Hebrew  narrative.  Such  a 
witness  plainly  to  some  extent  offers  to  it 
confirmation  ;  but  also  stands  in  competi- 
tion with  it.  The  competition  is  in  those 
particulars  where  the  accounts  are  not  in 
harmony.  As  to  these,  standing  on  the 
character  of  its  contents,  the  Hebrew  tradi- 
tion lays  claim  to  superior  antiquity  and 
authority.  But  in  proving  the  vast  antiquity 
of  certain  fundamental  ideas,  the  two  are 
concurrent,  and  not  competitive. 

The  Babylonian  Creation  Story  is  given  by 
Mr.  Smith  in  his  "Assyrian  Discoveries,"* 
so  far  as  its  mutilated  state  permits.  It  runs 
as  follows,  and  we  cannot,  I  think,  but 
cherish  the  hope  that  it  may  hereafter  re- 
ceive extension  or  elucidation.  "  When  the 
gods  in  their  assembly  made  the  universe, 
there  was  confusion,  and  the  gods  sent  out 
the    spirit    of    life.     They  then  create    the 

*  P.  397- 


OF  SCRIPTURE.  249 

beast  of  the  field,  the  animal  of  the  field, 
and  the^eptile  or  the  creeping  thing  of  the 
field,  and  fix  in  them  the  spirit  of  life.  Next 
comes  the  creation  of  domestic  animals, 
and  the  creeping  things  of  the  city."  Here 
we  have,  i,  creation  by  the  gods;  2,  chaos; 
3,  life,  and  only  by  inference,  order  ;  4,  wide 
extension  of  this  life  in  beasts  and  reptiles  ; 
5,  after  this  the  domesticated  animals.  Thus 
there  is  before  us  a  real,  though  rude  and 
imperfect,  structural  resemblance  to  the 
Hebrew  narrative,  together  with  the  lower- 
ing interpolation  of  polytheism. 

From  the  works  of  Schrader  *  on  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions,  some  further  par- 
ticulars may  be  gathered.  He  observes 
that  in  Berosus,  as  in  Genesis,  we  begin 
with  water  and  darkness.  On  which  I 
would  only  observe  that  Berosus,  who 
wrote  in  Greek,  may  not  improbabl\-  have 
known  the  Mosaic  writings, t  and,  as  I  have 
already  stated,  that  water,  in  the  text  of 
Genesis,  may  be  equivalent  to  fluid.  The 
marked  points  of  correspondence  appear  to 
be  these  :  that  the  heavenly  bodies  are 
created  after  the  heavens,  which  last  ex- 
pression, I  presume,  may  be  meant  to  in- 
clude the  light.     That  the  land  population 

*  Schrader,  "  The  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  and  the  Old 
Testament."  Translated  by  Whitehouse.  Vol.  i.  pp.4, 
seqq.  f  Smith,  Biogr.  Diet. 


250 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


follows  that  of  the  water,  and  appears  when 
vegetation  has  already  begun.  That  the 
monuments  name  a  Babylonian  week,  with 
the  seventh  day  as  a  day  of  consecration, 
called  also  an  evil  day,*  perhaps  because 
evil  for  any  work  done  on  it.  The  inscrip- 
tion says : — 

"  To  redeem  them,  created  mankind 
The  merciful  one,  in  whom  is  the  power 
thai  summons  to  life." 

which  is  faintly  comparable  with  the  words 
of  Gen.  ii.  7,  and  the  Jehovistic  account, 
"  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath 
of  life,"  What  seems  to  disappear  from  the 
Babylonian  account  is  that  evident  inten- 
tion of  series  and  orderly  development,  or 
evolution,  which  is  so  wonderful  a  feature  in 
the  Mosaic  narrative. 

Dawson,  in  a  recent  work,  observes  that 
the  polytheistic  element  is  the  distinctive 
feature  of  the  Chaldean  record,  and  that 
the  originals  of  the  tablets  from  Nineveh 
may  have  been  very  ancient,  but  that  they 
are  so  mixed  up  with  the  history  of  the 
Chaldean  hero,  named  Izdubar,  as  to  sug- 
gest that  there  may  have  existed  before  it 
still  older  creation  legends.  He  compares 
this  record  with  the  corresponding  account 
in  Genesis,  which  is  as  broadly  marked  with 
*  Schrader,  p.  19. 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


251 


the  idea  of  the  Divine  unity  as  the  Chal- 
dean legend  is  pervaded  by  the  conception 
of  polytheism.  And  he  adds,  "  Is  it  not 
likely  that  the  simpler  belief  is  older  than 
the  more  complex;  that  which  required  no 
priests,  ritual,  or  temple,  older  than  that 
with  which  all  these  things  were  necessarily 
associated  ?  "  He  naturally  assigns  a  marked 
superiority  to  the  "  Hebrew  Genesis."  *  In 
truth,  that  superiority  seems  to  be  not  great 
only,  but  immeasurable.  In  one  point  only 
do  the  tablets  go  beyond  the  narrative  of 
Genesis  ;  they  record  the  great  struggle  of 
Deity  with  rebellion,  the  war  in  heaven  be- 
tween Merodach  and  Tiamat.  But,  upon 
the  whole,  our  Bible  narrative  is  a  regular 
structure  ;  it  is  orderly,  progressive,  and 
rational ;  that  of  the  tablets  is  dark  and 
confused.  This  may,  however,  be  referable 
in  part  to  the  imperfection  of  the  tablets, 
the  third  of  which,  Mr.  Sayce  thinks,  may 
probably  have  recounted  the  formation  of 
the  earth. t  The  one  is  charged  in  a  mar- 
vellous way  with  instruction  and  moral  pur- 
pose ;  from  the  other  they  have  almost  dis- 
appeared. The  first  has,  as  we  believe, 
been  receiving  marked  confirmation  in  the 
most  vital  particulars  from  cosmic  and  geo- 
logic  science  ;  on    the    second    they    can 

*  "  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands,"  p.  32. 
f  "  Hibbert  Lectures,"  p.  394. 


252 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


hardly  be  said  to  cast  more  than  the  faint- 
est Hght.  And  yet  this  inferior  document 
is  itself  of  very  great  confirmatory  value  ; 
for  the  Izdubar  legends,  says  Mr.  Smith,* 
appear  to  have  been  composed  more  than 
2000  years  B.  c.  There  is  no  late  date  to 
which  the  Mosaic  narrative  can  with  a 
shadow  of  probability  be  referred.  It  could 
not  have  been  formed  without  a  miracle 
from  the  tablets  as  they  stand.  The  two 
are  evidently  accounts  proceeding  from  a 
common  source,  but  derived  through 
channels,  partly  or  wholly  independent. 
The  one  comes  through  a  powerful  and 
civilized  empire,  the  other  through  an  ob- 
scure nomad  family.  In  the  relative  superi- 
ority of  the  Mosaic  narrative,  all  the  rules 
of  merely  human  likelihoods  are  reversed  ; 
and  the  presumption  of  a  Divine  illumina- 
tion is  proportionably  augmented.  But 
the  unsuspected  antiquity  of  the  inferior 
legend  attests  by  an  independent  witness,  if 
not  the  truth,  yet  at  least  the  presumable 
origin,  of  its  transcendent  rival. 

So  far  as  scientific  opinion  is  concerned, 
another  remarkable  confirmation  seems  to 
have  been  given  to  the  cosmical  portion  of 
the  Creation  Story  in  Genesis  by  the  course 
which  it  has  taken  of  late  years.  Writing 
in  1839,  Dr.  Whewell  devoted  a  chapter  of 
*  "Assyrian  Discoveries,"  p.  166, 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


253 


his  "  Bridgewater  Treatises  on  Astronomy 
and  Physics  "  *  to  the  Nebular  or,  as  it  is 
often    called,    Rotatory    hypothesis.        He 
described  it  in  outline,  as  it  had  been  con- 
ceived   by    Laplace.     The    idea    of   it    was 
that  the  mass,  which  eventually  centred  in 
the  sun,  had  revolved  in  a  state  of  exces- 
sive heat;  that,  as  it  gradually  cooled,  the 
rapidity  of  its  motion  was  increased  ;  that, 
as  the  centrifugal  force  thus  grew,  the  mass 
detached  from  itself  exterior  zones  or  rings 
of  gas    or    vapor,  which    most    commonly 
broke  up  into  several  minor  masses,  and  so 
gradually  formed  the  planetary  system.     Dr. 
Whewell's   object   in  this   earh'  notice  of  a 
subject,  which  has  since  attracted,  I  believe, 
very  general  attention  in  the  world  of  astro- 
nomical  science,   was  to  sustain  and  illus- 
trate   his    general    argument,    by    showing 
how    this    theory  did  nothing   whatever  to 
explain    the    origin   of  the    system,   or    to 
weaken  the  statement  of  Newton,  that   its 
admirable   arrangement  must  be  "  the  work 
of   an    intelligent    and    most    powerful    be- 
ing."    The  origin  of  this  rotation,  said  Dr. 
Whewell,  remains  unexplained,  and  still  as 
powerfully  as  ever  cries  aloud  for,  and  pro- 
claims   an    Author.     My    purpose    in  here 
naming  the  subject  is  to  point  out  that  Dr. 
Whewell  then  found  himself  dealing  with  a 
*  Ch.  vii.  p.  181. 


254 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


theory    which    had    not   yet  obtained    any 
wide    currency    or    authority,  and  he  then 
"  left  to  other  persons  and  to  future  ages  to 
decide  upon  the  merits  of  the  nebular  hy- 
pothesis."*    But,  during  the    half  century 
which  has   elapsed   since   he   produced  his 
Treatise,  the   hypothesis   is    understood  to 
have    gained  very    general,    if   not    indeed 
unanimous,  acceptance   from    astronomers. 
I  refer  to  this  result  of  the  most  modern 
studies  as  a  new  and  remarkable  establish- 
ment of  accord  between  natural  science  on 
the  one  hand  (so  far  as  its  reasonings  have 
proceeded),  and  the  Book  of  Genesis  on  the 
other.     Often    has    it   been    endeavored   to 
place  the   Mosaic  geology  in  conflict  with 
ascertained  results,  but    less,   though  even 
here  something,  of  the  same  kind  has  been 
attempted,  so  far  as  I  know,  by   persons  of 
scientific    authority,     with    regard    to    the 
cosmogony  which  occupies  the  earlier  por- 
tion of  tiie  Chapter.     On  the  other  hand,  it 
has  been    shown,  with   what  seems  to   me 
conclusive  clearness,  that,  without  the   use 
of  scientific  language,  that  very  process  has 
been    described    in    slight    outline,    but     in 
singular  correspondence  with  the  hypothesis 
now  so  largely  accepted.     That  hypothesis 
may  not  indeed  have  reached  the  point  of 
demonstration,  and  this  the  subject-matter 
*  P.  190. 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


255 


itself  may  be  found  not  to  permit ;  yet  it 
has  attained  to  so  much  of  authorit}'  from 
consent  that  Dr.  Whewell,  were  he  writ- 
ing now,  would  not  have  had  simply  to 
hand  it  over  to  the  future  for  consideration, 
but  would  more  probably  have  declared 
that  it  holds  the  field,  and  seems  little 
likely  to  be  displaced  from  it. 

With  the  creation  of  the  world  or  the 
solar  system,  the  question  of  its  termina- 
tion is  naturally  associated.  On  this  sub- 
ject, however,  I  will  not  dwell  at  length, 
because  the  support  here  afforded  by  scien- 
tific opinion  is  given  to  the  Scriptures  of  the 
New  Testament,  rather  than  the  Old.  To 
refer  again  to  Dr.  Whewell.  In  a  passage 
of  extraordinary  grandeur,  he  delivered  (I 
think  it  was  in  a  sermon)  his  opinion  that 
the  world  would  end  with  a  catastrophe,  in- 
stead of  dying  what  is  termed  a  natural 
death.  Such,  as  we  know,  is  the  emphatic 
declaration  of  the  inspired  Word.  "  The 
day  of  the  Lord  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the 
night:  in  the  which  the  heavens  shall  pass 
away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements 
shall  melt  with  fervent  heat ;  the  earth  also, 
and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be 
burned  up."*  And  again,  "Looking  for 
and  hasting  unto  the  coming  of  the  day  of 
God,  wherein  the  heavens  being  on  fire 
*  2  Peter  iii.  10,  12. 


256 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


shall  be  dissolved,  and  the  elements  shall 
melt  with  fervent  heat."  Such  was  the 
judgment  of  Dr.  Whewell  nearly  half  a 
century  ago.  His  words  were  delivered 
rather  as  by  one  uttering  his  own  firm 
opinion,  than  as  expressing  the  conviction 
of  astronomers  at  large.  Nevertheless,  as 
I  have  been  informed  on  high  authority,  it 
is  now  the  established  conclusion  of  astron- 
omers, based  upon  reasoning  from  ascer- 
tained facts,  that  the  Galilean  fishermen 
knew  what  all  the  genius  and  learning  of 
the  world  for  thousands  of  yearS  failed  to 
discover,  and  that — 

"  The  great  globe  itself, 
Yea,  all  which  it  inheiit,  shall  dissolve."  * 


III. — AS    TO    THE    FLOOD    STORY. 

I  pass  now  to  the  Flood-Legend,  one 
form  of  which  has  come  down  through 
Berosus  and  Josephus,  but  which  acquires 
much  more  certain  antiquity,  and  greater 
grandeur,  from  the  Inscriptions.  Their 
account,  says  Schrader,  whose  bias  cannot, 
I  think,  be  considered  as  friendly  towards 
the  Hebrew  record,  "  brings  the  Biblical 
narrative  into  much  closer  relation  with  the 
Chaldean  flood-legend  than  could  be  as- 
*  Shakespeare,  Te?n/>esi,  iv.  i. 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


257 


sumed    on    the  basis  of    the    tradition    in 
Berosus."*     It  forms  part  of   the  Izdubar 
legends   discovered  by  Mr.  George  Smith, 
who  pubHshed  his  account  of  them  in  1872, 
and  who  assigns  to  them  a  date  anterior  to 
2000  years  b.  c.  under  the  early  Babylonian 
empire. t     The  hero   of  the  legends   is  be- 
lieved by  Mr.  Smith  to  be  the  same  as  the 
Nimrod    of    Genesis.     Like    the    Creation 
Story    of    Genesis, I    that     of    the     Flood 
derives  corroboration  from  the  Babylonian 
record,  inasmuch  as  it  is  thus  carried  back 
by    an    independent    testimony    to   a    very 
great  antiquity.     That  record,  composed,  as 
Mr.  Smith  thinks,  not  long  after  the  time  of 
Izdubar  or   Nimrod,  gives  us  the  tradition 
of  a  flood  which  was  a  Divine  punishment 
for  the   wickedness  of  the  world,  and   of  a 
holy  man,  who  built  an  ark,  and  escaped  the 
general   destruction. §     The  particulars   are 
set  out  in  Mr.  Smith's  volume.     They  differ, 
in   many   respects,   from   those  of  Genesis, 
but  the  essential  features  are  in  the  highest 
degree   marked,  and,  together   with   certain 
of   the    details,  are    singularly    accordant. || 
As   in   the  case   of  the    Creation   Story,   so 
here  there  is  stamped   upon  them   the  note 
of  a   common   source,   and   of  channels  of 

*  Schrader,  as  above,  p.  47. 

■j-  "Assyrian  Discoveries,"  p.  166.        %  Ibid,  and  204. 

\  Pp.  205-6,  seqq.  \  Pp.  184,  seqq. 

17 


258 


RE  CENT  CORROBORA  TIO  NS 


descent  which  separate  at  some  later  date. 
In  this  case,  however,  the  Babylonian  nar- 
rative holds  a  higher  position,  relatively  to 
the  scriptural  record,  than  in  the  case  of 
the  Creation. 

The  hero  of  the   deluge    is   Hasisadra,  a 
name    which     has    been     Hellenized     into 
Xisuthrus ;    who,   on    the    eleventh   tablet, 
relates  to   Izdubar  (the  supposed    Nimrod) 
the  story  of  the  deluge.     I    shall   only  at- 
tempt an  outline  presenting  the  main  points.* 
In  the   ancient  city  of  Surippah,   where 
Anu  and  other  great  gods  were  worshipped, 
Hasisadra  was  divinely  warned  by  Hea,  the 
great   water-god,    to  construct    a    ship,   of 
which  the  size  is  named,  and  commit   to  it 
"  the  seed  of  life,  all  of  it,"  as  "  the   sinner 
and  life  "  were  about  to  be  destroyed  by  a 
flood.     Food,    furniture,    wealth,    servants, 
and  animals  were  all  to  be  embarked.     The 
building  and  loading  of  the  ship   are   then 
described,  and  the  part  taken  by  the  several 
gods    in    bringing    about    the    catastrophe. 
But  "  the  gods  "  themselves  feared  the  tem- 
pest, and  "  ascended  to  the  heaven  of  Anu." 
This  deluge    lasted   for    six   days:    on   the 
seventh  all   was  quiet.     There  is   sight  of 
land  from  within  the  vessel.      It  is  arrested 
by  the  mountain  of  Nizir.     A  dove  is  sent 
forth,  and  returns.     A  swallow  is  sent,  and 
*  Smith,  pp.  184-194. 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


259 


does  the  like.  A  raven  goes,  feeds  on  the 
corpses  that  are  afloat,  and  returns  not. 
Then  comes  landing,  sacrifice,  the  sending 
forth  of  animals.  Ninip  and  Hea  then  re- 
monstrate with  Bel,  and  suggest  other  more 
usual  means  of  chastising  men,  in  which 
there  seems  to  be  some  affinity  to  the  prom- 
ise of  Gen.  viii.  21-2,  and  ix.  11-17,  that 
there  should  never  again  be  a  flood  upon 
the  earth.  And  "  then  dwelt  Hasisadra  in 
a  remote  place  at  the  mouth  of  the  rivers." 

The  resemblances  between  this  narrative 
of  the  flood  and  that  in  Genesis  are  such  as 
clearly  to  betoken  a  relationship  at  or  near 
the  source.  The  most  peculiar,  and  at  the 
same  time  purely  incidental,  among  all  the 
details  of  the  narrative,  appears  to  be  the 
threefold  experiment  with  birds  upon  the 
decline  of  the  waters  ;  but  this  appears  alike 
in  the  three  narratives  of  Chaldaea,  the 
Bible,  and  Berosus.  No  other  nations  have 
accounts  so  full  and  precise  as  these.* 

Mr.  Smith  has  some  judicious  and  im- 
partial observations  on  the  two  accounts. f 
The  Chaldean  account  indicates  the  nature 
of  the  countr\-  in  which  the  flood  took  place. 
Surippah  is  near  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates, 
and  there  Hea  was  worshipped  as  the  god 
of  the  deluge.  The  Hebrew  account  has 
no  local  confirmations  of  the  story.     When 

*  Smith,  p.  212.  f  Ibid. 


26o         RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 

Surippah  was  conquered,  in  the  sixteenth 
century  B.  c.  or  earlier,  it  is  called  in  the 
record,  "  the  city  of  the  ark."  Hasisadra  is, 
like  Noah,  a  devout  man ;  and  the  Chaldean 
deluge  is,  like  the  Hebrew,  a  punishment 
for  gross  and  widespread  sin.  Schrader 
argrues  with  a  view  to  attenuate  this  state- 
ment,  but,  as  it  appears  to  me,  in  the  spirit 
of  a  partisan  rather  than  a  judge.*  The 
dimensions  of  the  ark  vary  in  the  three 
accounts  ;  and  on  the  variations  of  numerals 
I  observe  elsewhere.  It  may,  however,  be 
observed  that  the  Babylonian  account,  which 
presumably  was  written  down  from  a  very 
early  date,  and  in  a  durable  form,  has  in 
this  respect  a  great  advantage  over  oral 
transmission,  which  is  most  of  all  dangerous 
for  numerical  statements.  The  inscription 
describes  a  regular  vessel  with  boatmen, 
another  incident  of  local  color.  The  ac- 
counts curiously  coincide  in  the  minute 
point  that,  both  inside  and  out,  the  ark  is 
coated  with  bitumen.  The  tablet  tells  us 
that  not  eight  only,  but  a  comparatively 
large  number  of  persons  went  on  board. 
The  Bible  gives  forty  days  as  the  duration 
of  the  flood,  meaning  apparently  at  the 
height.  After  150  days  the  waters  all 
abated.  The  whole  duration  before  disap- 
pearance is  a  year  and  ten  days.f  The 
*  Vol.  i.  p.  49.      f  Gen.  vii.  11,  12,  13,  14,  17,  24. 


OF  SCRIPTURE.  26 1 

tablet  allows  only  seven  days  for  the  fulness 
of  the  flood.  On  the  seventh  day  all  storm 
has  ceased.  Hasisadra  then  sends  out  the 
bird.  The  ship  is  stranded  for  seven  days 
more  on  the  mountains  of  Nizir,  so  that  the 
total  term  mentioned  is  one  of  only  fourteen 
days.  Nizir  lies  away  to  the  east,  far  from 
the  site  of  Ararat  mentioned  in  Genesis;  on 
the  other  hand,*  the  present  tradition  of  the 
country  lands  the  ark  at  a  site  farther  to  the 
north,  and  nearer  Ararat.  Again  as  to  the 
birds.  In  Genesis  Noah  sends  out  a  raven, 
which  does  not  return  ;  then  a  dove  three 
times,  at  intervals  of  seven  days ;  on  the 
third  occasion  the  dove  does  not  return. 
The  inscription  sends,  first,  a  dove,  which 
returns,  then  a  swallow,  which  returns,  and 
then  a  raven,  which  does  not  return.  Lastly, 
in  the  Bible,  Noah  lives  after  the  flood  for 
350  years ;  the  tablet  and  Bcrosus  both 
assign  to  him,  associated  (rather  strangely) 
with  his  daughter  and  the  helmsman, f  that 
translation  to  heaven  for  his  piety,  which 
Genesis  gives  to  Enoch.  Before  translation, 
he  was  visited  by  Izdubar,  and  the  region 
was  deemed  a  sacred  region. 

On  a  general  comparison  of  these  two 
profoundly  interesting  records,  the  result 
appears  to  be  that  in  what  is  circumstantial 
only   there   is  much   difference  along  with 

■*  Smith,  p.  217.  f  Schrader,  i.  60. 


262         RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 

some  curious  resemblance ;  but  in  the  out- 
line  of  the  fundamental   facts,  and   in   the 
moral  considerations    applicable,    they    are 
radically  at   one.     The  wickedness   of  the 
antediluvian  world,  the   Divine  anger,  the 
command  to  build,  the  use  of  this  vehicle 
of  escape,  and  the  erection  of  an  altar   of  . 
thanksgiving,  are   recorded  alike    in   both. 
We    have    no    absolute    right    to    assume 
that   either  of  the  accounts,  as    it    stands, 
is    contemporary    with    the    period    of  the 
flood.     The  points  in  which  the  Bible  ac- 
count  may  seem  inferior,  are  the  absence 
of  local  coloring,  and  the  probable  relation 
of  the  numerical  statements  to  actual  fact. 
Yet  this,  so  far  from  impairing  its  claim  to 
our  acceptance,  appears  on  the  contrary  to 
accredit   it,  because   it   is   a  feature  which, 
given  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  there 
was  reason   to   expect.     If,  indeed,  we   ride 
the    hobby    of  the    negative    criticism,  the 
Bible  account  bristles  everywhere  with  diffi- 
culty.    It  is  inconceivable  that  the  framers 
should  have  in  that  case  departed  so  widely 
from  the  inscription  in  points  so  palpable  to 
all  the  world,  or  should  have  let  slip  the 
local  color,  with  which  a  fabricator  or  late 
relator  would  have  been  forward  to   dress 
up  his  narrative.     But,  if  we  take  Abraham, 
with  his  ancestors  and  his  posterity,  as  a 
nomad  people,  religious  and  of  simple  life 


OF  SCRIPTURE.  263 

such  as  the  Bible  represents  them  ;  at  an 
earher  period  hanging  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  Babylonian  power,  at  a  later  one  migra- 
tory towards  the  West ;  it  was  natural  for 
them  to  drop  the  local  coloring  of  a  region 
with  which  all  their  relations  had  come  to 
an  end,  and  to  drop  somewhat  behind  in  the 
exactitude  of  some  among  the  particulars ; 
and  this  is  perhaps  observable,  as  to  the 
point  of  local  color,  not  in  the  case  of  the 
flood  only,  but  throughout  the  Abrahamic 
narrative  down  to  the  entry  into  the  prom- 
ised land. 

The  most  significant  difference  of  all 
between  the  two  records  is  that  the  inscrip- 
tion is  based  upon  polytheism,  while  in  the 
Bible,  here  as  elsewhere,  all  is  based  upon 
the  doctrine  of  one  God.  That  is  to  say, 
the  simpler  form  is  the  groundwork  of  the 
Bible  narrative,  and  the  simpler  form,  ac- 
cording to  the  generally  recognized  princi- 
ple, is  that  nearest  the  source,  most  closely 
akin  to  the  occurrence  or  the  original  record. 
The  religion  of  Noah  agrees  with  that  of 
the  common  father,  Adam  ;  the  religion  of 
Hasisadra  has  departed  from  the  primitive 
belief,  and  exhibits  to  us  those  multiplied 
and  deteriorated  images  of  the  Deity,  which 
human  infirmity  and  sin  had  introduced  or 
allowed. 

While  Schrader   glances    at   the   period 


264 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


when  the  Babylonian  flood-legend  reached 
the  Hebrews  as  that  of  "  the  prophetic  nar- 
rator of  early  Biblical  history,"  he  candidly 
adds,  "  I  am  led  to  the  obvious  conclusion 
that  the  Hebrews  were  acquainted  with  this 
legend  at  a  much  earlier  period,  and  that  it  is 
far  from   impossible  that  they  acquired    a 
knowledge  of  these  and  the  other  primitive 
myths  now  under  investigation  as  far  back 
as  in  the  time  of  their  earlier  settlements  in 
Babylonia,    and    that    they    carried    these 
stories  with  them  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees." 
For  him  they  are  all  myths;  the  original  in- 
vention is  in  Babylonia,  and  the  Hebrews 
are  early  copyists.      For    others,   however, 
they  are  in  the  nature   of  primitive  tradi- 
tions, founded  on  histories ;    and  the  twin 
versions  bear    testimony    by  their  concur- 
rence, and  even  in  some  respects  by  their 
discrepancies,  to  their  historical  character. 
If   there  was  remoulding,    it    may  be    the 
more  detailed  and  circumstantial   narration 
which  is  presumptively  entitled  to  the  credit 
of  it ;  and  the  Bible  story,  more  sparing  in 
its  details,  but  far  broader  and  more  direct 
in  the  terrible  lesson  it  conveys,  may  reason- 
ably be  judged  to  have  come  down  from 
the  source  with   the    smallest    amount    of 
variation  in    essentials    from    the    original. 
It  is  here  as  elsewhere.     "  The  wisdom  of 
this  world,"  the  race  favored  with  stable 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


265 


institutions,  and  with  intellectual  develop- 
ment, yet  fails  in  the  firmness  of  its  hold, 
and  the  clearness  of  its  view,  where  the 
appreciation  of  the  tremendous  moral  lesson 
is  concerned ;  while  the  race  of  wandering- 
shepherds,  who  are  but  the  "  babes  and 
sucklings  "  of  intelligence,  yet  transmit  that 
lesson  in  a  type  so  fresh  and  clear  that  our 
Lord  has  only  to  quote  and  enlarge  without 
correcting  it,  and  so  to  launch  it  anew  into 
the  world  as  a  solemn  chapter  of  His  gospel 
teaching. 

It  may  be  noticed  that  the  translation  to 
heaven  of  Hasisadra,  the  Noah  of  the  tablets,, 
is  in  curious  accordance  with  that  far  larger 
development  both  of  the  Underworld  and 
of  the  future  state,  which  marks  alike  the 
Babylonian  and  the  Egyptian  systems  in 
comparison  with  that  of  the  Old  Testament^ 
and  forms  an  interesting  but  separate  sub- 
ject of  discussion. 

The  Hebrew  story  of  the  Deluge  has  long 
been  supported  by  a  diversity  of  traditions 
among  nations  and  races  of  the  world,  but 
never  before  with  such  particularity,  or  such 
corroboration  in  the  sense  and  to  the  extent 
before  described.  But  though  we  have 
now  a  new  and  important  witness  in  court 
on  our  behalf,  yet  undoubtedly,  if  the  nar- 
rative be  provably  untrue  the  testimony  of 


266        RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 

both,  or  of  any  number  of  traditional  wit- 
nesses, must  fall  to  the  ground. 

The  voice  of  natural  science  has  not 
been,  and  probably  is  not  at  present,  uniform 
on  this  subject.  The  negative  has  just  been 
presented  to  the  world,  of  course  with  great 
ability,  and  also  in  a  sufficiently  magisterial 
form,  by  Professor  Huxley.  He  conceives 
that  Christian  theology  must  stand  or  fall 
with  the  historical  trustworthiness  of  the 
Jewish  Scriptures ;  *  and,  as  these  are  not 
trustworthy,  the  consequence  is  that  it  must 
not  stand  but  fall.  With  this  general  propo- 
sition I  have  here  nothing  to  do. 

Mr.  Huxley  selects  the  flood-story  for  the 
capital  article  of  his  indictment.  But  he 
treats  it  as  little  worthy  of  serious  notice. 
"  It  is  difficult  to  persuade  serious  scientific 
inquirers  to  occupy  themselves  in  any  way 
with  the  Noachian  deluge."  f  He  finds, 
indeed,  a  sort  of  historic  nucleus  for  a  par- 
tial deluge  in  the  occasional  desolating 
floods  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris. |  But, 
be  it  a  partial  or  be  it  a  general  flood,  he  ap- 
plies the  same  contemptuous  negative  doc- 
trine to  the  deluge :  perhaps  most  of  all  to 
what  he  terms  a  particularly  absurd  attempt 
at  reconciliation,  which  places  it  "  at  the 
end  of  the  glacial  epoch."  §     I  am  far  from 

*  Nineteenth  Century,  July,  1S90,  p.  8. 
fP.  12.  J  P.' 14-  §  P.  13- 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


267 


intending  to  enter  upon  a  controversy, 
which  I  have  no  capacity  to  handle.  Yet 
I  may  be  bold  enough  to  mention,  that, 
while  Mr.  Huxley  is  speaking  in  the  name 
of  science  at  large,  some  votaries  of  science 
hold  an  entirely  different  language.  More- 
over, that  the  idea  of  a  flood  was  not  thu.s 
summarily  dismissed  by  the  luminaries  of 
the  scientific  world  anterior  to  the  present 
day;  and  that  the  grounds  of  this  dismissal 
are  not  of  recent  discovery,  but  were  fully 
open  to  the  geologists  of  the  last  generation. 
Quite  recently,  the  doctrine  of  a  deluge  has 
been  maintained  by  Sir  J.  Dawson,*  by  Mr. 
Howorth,  and  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll  (if  I 
interpret  him  aright), f  all  of  whom  are,  I 
suppose,  to  be  considered  as  "  serious 
scientific  inquirers." 

Mr.  Howorth,  in  his  learned  and  laborious 
work  on  "  The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood," 
is  certainly  not  bound  by  any  superstitious 
reverence  for  the  mere  text  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis  ;  for,  in  his  preface,;];  he  seems  to 
cast  aside  as  null  its  traditions  respecting 
all  that  preceded  the  creation  of  man.  His 
treatise  collects  largelv  not  onlv  the  diluvial 
traditions  of  so  many  races  and  countries, 
but    an   immense   mass  of  paljeontological 

*  "Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands,"  p.  252. 

fin  The  Scottish  Geographical  Alagaziue,  h\ix\\  1 890. 

X  Pp.  ix.,  X. 


268         RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 

evidence  ;  and,  having  laid  this  wide  ground 
for  his  induction,  he  declares  that,  in  his 
judgment,  the  whole  points  unmistakably 

"  To  a  widespread  calamity,  involving  a  flood  on  a 
great  scale.  I  do  not  see  how  the  historian,  the  archae- 
ologist, and  the  palaeontologist  can  avoid  making  this 
conclusion  in  future  a  prime  factor  in  their  discussions, 
and  I  venture  to  think  that  before  long  it  will  be  ac- 
cepted as  unanswerable."  * 

Moreover,  I  am  free  to  consider  history 
no  less  a  science,  though  a  less  determinate 
science,  than  geology  or  biology ;  and  I 
quote  in  conclusion  the  following  passage 
from  Lenormant,  which  follows  a  copious 
collection  of  testimonies  to  the  tradition  of 
a  deluge  in  almost  all  lands : — 

«'  La  longue  revue,  a  laquelle  nous  venons  de  nous 
livrer,  nous  permit  d'affirmer  que  le  r^cit  du  deluge  est 
une  tradition  universale  dans  tous  les  rameaux  de  I'hu- 
inanit6,  a  I'exception  toutefois  de  la  race  noire.  Mais  un 
souvenir  partout,  aussi  precis  et  aussi  concordant,  ne 
saurait  etre  celui  d'un  mythe  invente  a  plaisir;  aucun 
mythe  religieux  ou  cosmogonique  ne  preseiite  ce  carac- 
t^re  d'universalile.  C'est  necessairement  le  souvenir 
d'un  evenement  reel  et  terrible,  qui  frappa  assez  puis- 
samment  1' imagination  des  ancetres  de  notre  esp^ce 
pour  n'elre  jamais  oublie  de  leurs  descendants.  Ce  cala- 
clysme  se  produit  prds  du  berceaux  primitif  de  I'hu- 
inanit6."t 

*  P-  463-  ^  , 

f  "  Les  Origines  de  I'Histoire,"  pp.  489,490.    Second 

Edition  1880.     "The    long  review,  to    which    we   have 

just  applied  ourselves,  warrants    our  afiirming   that  the 

tale  of  the   Deluge  is  an  universal  tradition  among  all 


OF  SCRIPTURE.  269 

IV. — AS    TO    THE    GREAT    DISPERSION. 

The  contents  of  the  Tenth  chapter  of 
Genesis  constitute  a  document  of  a  character 
altogether  extraordinary :  for  example,  in 
the  two  following  particulars.  First,  it  is 
without  parallel  in  the  world.  Nowhere 
else  is  there  known  to  us  a  distinct  and  de- 
tailed endeavor  to  draw  downwards  from 
a  single  source  the  multiplication  of  men  in 
the  earth  by  families,  and  the  distribution  of 
them  over  the  face  of  the  earth.  Secondly, 
this  account,  containing  seventy-two  names 
of  men  (to  which  more  are  added  in  con- 
nection with  the  descent  of  Abram  when  we 
reach  chap,  xii.j,  is  so  particular,  that  the 
notion  of  its  correct  transmission  bv  ordi- 
nary  means  may  appear  to  present  much 
difficulty.  Abram,  when  he  migrated  west- 
ward, came  from  a  country  which  we  now 
know  to  have  possessed  in  his  time  means 
of  durable  record  ;  but,  as  the  head  of  a 
nomad  family,  he  could  hardly  have  carried 

the  branches  of  the  human  family  ;  excepting,  however, 
the  blacks.  But  a  remembrance  prevailing  everywhere, 
so  precise  and  so  concordant,  cannot  belong  to  a  myth 
arbitrarily  invented.  No  religious  or  cosmogonic  myth 
presents  such  a  character  of  universality.  It  must  of 
necessity  be  a  recollection  of  a  great  and  terrible  occur- 
rence, which  impressed  the  imagination  of  the  ancestors 
of  our  race  so  powerfully  as  never  to  have  been  forgotten 
by  their  descendants.  That  cataclysm  took  place  at  a 
spot  near  the  primeval  cradle  of  humanity." 


270 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


with  him  written  traditions:  and  a  specific 
narrative  of  this  kind,  hke  the  Greek  Cata- 
logue in  the  "  Ihad,"  presented  great  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  oral  transmission 
through  several,  perhaps  many,  generations, 
down  to  the  time  when  we  may  reasonably 
suppose  the  children  of  Israel  to  have 
acquired  the  art  of  writing  during  their 
sojourn  in  Egypt.  The  assisting  Provi- 
dence of  God  may  suggest  itself  to  the  be- 
heving  mind  as  having  supplied  the  needful 
measure  of  that  aid,  which  Homer  *  be- 
sought, in  a  kindred  case,  from  the  Muses. 
But  the  document,  if  thus  considered,  lays 
a  certain  weight  upon  our  faculty  of  belief, 
and  even  offers  a  tempting  invitation  to  as- 
sault from  those  who  are  adversely  minded. 
This  weight,  however,  is  converted  at  once 
into  a  prop,  into  a  buttress  which  well  and 
stoutly  supports  the  wall,  when  we  find  that 
this  singular  and,  so  to  speak,  exposed  tra- 
dition has  received  in  the  most  fundamental 
and  vital  points,  from  the  researches  of 
philological  and  of  historical  science,  strik- 
ing and,  we  may  suppose;  conclusive  con- 
firmation. 

The  foundation  of  the  arrangement  is  the 
threefold  division  of  the  human  race  from  a 
certain  period  of  its  history.  If  such  a  divi- 
sion actually  took  place,  we  might  expect 

*Il.ii.  484. 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


27  E 


to  find  the  traces  of  it  in  a  threefold  division 
of  language,  which  has  an  unquestionable 
relation  to  race ;  and,  conversely,  such  a 
divarication  in  language  proves  an  early 
distribution  of  races  or  families,  from  which 
it  took  its  origin.  Without  entering  into 
details,  it  may  be  observed  that  the  Book 
of  Genesis  associates  the  first  distinctions 
of  language  with  the  local  dispersion  of 
man  ;  and  it  is  now  known  that,  in  days  an- 
tecedent to  the  permanent  bond  of  literature, 
such  an  association  is  agreeable  not  only  to 
probability,  but  to  the  ascertained  laws  of 
experience.  And  now  we  find  that  com- 
parative philology,  dealing  at  large  with  the 
languages  of  the  world,  has  resolved  them 
into  that  very  threefold  division,  which  the 
distribution  of  man  according  to  Gen.  x. 
into  three  great  branches  anticipates  and 
requires.  Here  is  again  an  important  ser- 
vice, rendered  by  modern  science  to  belief 

It  is  true  that  the  Bible  (Gen.  xi.  i)  speaks 
of  language  as  originally  one,  and  that  this 
proposition  has  not  yet  been  generally  af- 
firmed by  philology.  Yet  the  way  to  it  has 
been  opened,  and  it  need  excite  no  surprise 
should  the  goal  be  soon  attained.  Professor 
Max  MuUer,  I  believe,  says  there  is  no 
proof  that  the  Aryan,  Semitic,  and  Turan- 
ian families  of  language  had  independent 
beginnings  ;  that  radicals  existing  in  all  the 


272 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


three  can  be  traced  to  the  common  source, 
and  that  even  the  grammars  may  have  been 
originally  one.  But  this  subject  still  awaits 
its  scientific  elucidation  or  decision. 

The  Table  of  Peoples  presents  on  its 
surface  some  apparent  anomalies  ;  of  which, 
however,  a  rational  account  can  be  given, 
and  one  which  for  the  most  part  converts 
them  into  evidences  in  its  favor.  For 
instance,  the  Hamitic  portion  presents  to  us 
out  of  a  total  of  thirty  names  no  less  than 
eighteen  which  are  plural  words,  and  which 
are  therefore  national  or  tribal,  while  only 
two  of  the  same  class  are  found  in  the  rest 
of  the  account.  But  this  seems  upon  con- 
sideration to  illustrate  what  we  know  from 
history ;  namely,  that  the  Hamitic  races 
exhibited  the  most  precocious  development, 
and  set  up  the  earliest  known  civilizations 
of  the  world,  those  of  Babylonia  and  of 
Egypt. 

Again  :  the  Cushite  stock,  after  its  regu- 
lar order  is  arrested  in  ver.  7  of  the  chapter, 
jumps  as  it  were  down  to  Nimrod  in  8-10. 
But  we  must  bear  in  mind  the  greatness  as- 
signed to  his  individual  position.  He  is  the 
only  person  in  the  Table  who  is  described 
as  founding  a  kingdom,  and  the  account  of 
him  has  a  great  resemblance  to  that  of  Iz- 
dubar  in  the  Assyrian  Tablets,  with  whom 
he  is  identified  by  Mr.  George  Smith. 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


273 


Again,  as  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth  are 
four  times  mentioned  together,  and  invari- 
ably in  this  order,  it  seems  to  follow  natu- 
rally that  this  is  the  order  of  their  ages. 
In  ch.  X.,  however,  their  descendants  are  set 
out  in  the  inverse  order,  and  Japheth  takes 
precedence.  But  this  also,  upon  reflection, 
we  may  find  to  be  quite  natural.  Migra- 
tion was  largely  connected  with  consid- 
erations of  space  and  food.  It  may  be 
that  the  younger  had  to  give  place  to  the 
elder,  and  that  the  children  of  Japheth  had 
on  this  account  to  be  the  first  in  moving 
from  the  common  centre. 

Further:  in  the  Japhetic  line  the  geneal- 
ogy wholly  stops  with  the  next  generation 
but  one,  whereas,  it  is  continued  farther,  not 
only  in  the  Semitic  line,  which  had  to  be 
connected  with  Abram,  but  also  in  the 
Hamitic,  by  the  mention  of  Nimrod  and  of 
the  Philistines.  This,  however,  seems  per- 
fectly natural  if  the  line  of  Japheth,  as  is 
probable,  moved  the  first,  and,  as  is  mani- 
fest, went  the  farthest,  so  as  to  be  out  of 
sight  of  the  narrator,  while  descendants  of 
Shem  and  Ham  remained  locally  in  contact 
with  each  other.  Knobel*  has  observed,  that 
in  each  of  the  three  branches  the  enumera- 
tion begins  with  those  who  travelled  to  the 
greatest  distance  from   the   common   centre 

*  "  Volkertafel  der  Genesis,"   Giessen,  1850,  p.  14. 


274 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


(which  is  taken  by  him  to  be  near  Mount 
Ararat),  and  accordingly  the  Japhetites 
are  reckoned  from  the  north-west,  the 
Semites  from  the  south-east,  and  Ham- 
ites  from  the  south-west.  Just  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Homeric  Catalogue,*  this 
methodical  arrangement  probably  gave  great 
assistance  to  the  memory  of  the  first  re- 
corder. 

Knobel  has  discussed  with  great  minute- 
ness and  care  the  particular  names  of  the 
recital,  and  he  traces  them  to  their  historic 
seats.  Bishop  Browne,  in  the  "  Speaker's 
Commentary,"  has  entered  on  the  same  field. 
Some  examples  may  be  given.  The  Japhet- 
ites are  those  (Japhah)  of  fair  complexion. 
They  take  to  the  isles  or  coast-lands, t  the 
seaward  countries  of  the  north  and  west. 
Here  we  meet  the  name  of  Gomer  repro- 
duced in  the  Cimmerians,  Cimbri,  and 
Cwmry.  Ashkenaz,  the  son  of  Gomer,  is 
found  in  Scandinavia, J  the  Scangia  of  Jor- 
nandus,  the  chief  seat  of  the  German  stock. 
Another  route  is  marked  in  the  same  direc- 
tion by  Ascania,§  in  Asia  Minor,  a  name 
found  at  various  points  of  that  region. 
Knobel  thinks  there  is  a  trace  of  the  Teu- 
tonic race  in  Teuthras,  a  name    found    on 

*  "  Juventus  Mundi,"  p.  467. 

•}•  See  Revised  Version,  Gen.  x.  5- 

X  Kncbel,  Ibid.  pp.  35-7.  \  P.  39. 


OF  SCRIPTURE. 


275 


both  sides  in  the  war  of  the  Iliad.*  He 
proceeds  with  the  hst  of  Japhetites  as  fol- 
lows. Riphath,  he  thinks,  is  traced  in  the 
Carpathian  country, f  Togarma  in  Armenia, 
Magog  in  the  Slavs,  Madai  in  the  Medes, 
Javan  in  the  laones  or  lonians,  Elisa  in 
Cohans,  Tarshish  in  the  Tursenoi,  Kittini 
in  the  Chilians  of  Cyprus,  Dodanim  in  the 
Dardanians,  Tubal  in  the  Iberians,  Meshech 
in  the  Meschi  or  Moschi,  Tiras  in  the 
Thracians  (Thrax  or  Thras).J  Some  among 
these  particular  interpretations — for  instance, 
that  given  to  Elisa — may  be  untenable. 
Bishop  Browne  §  sets  out  the  various 
opinions  that  have  been  held,  mostly  with- 
out declaring  a  preference.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, the  accuracy  of  each  particular  identi- 
fication, nor  even  of  every  particular  item 
of  the  text,  but  the  principles  of  the  general 
arransfement,  and  the  large  number  of  cases 
reasonably  clear,  which  give  the  subject  its 
importance. 

The  Semitic  and  Hamitic  branches  offer 
less  difficulty  to  the  investigator.  No  part 
of  the  tracking  is  more  satisfactory  than  that 
which  relates  to  the  nations  of  Palestine,  and 
to  the  names  of  Canaan,  Sidon  and  Heth, 
where   every  particular,  known  to  us   from 

*  V.  705,  and  vi.  13.  -j-  Knobel,  Ibid.  p.  44. 

X  Pp.  53,  60,  71,  77,  81,  95,  117,  123. 
\  "  Speaker's  Comm.,"  Genesis  in  loc. 


276 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


independent  history  or  tradition,  supports, 
so  far  as  I  can  judge,  in  a  most  remarkable 
manner  the  trustworthiness  of  the  record. 
Speaking  generally,  perhaps  no  one  can  go 
farther  than  Knobel  in  the  work  of  identifi- 
cation. His  treatise  has  become  a  consider- 
able authority,  and  is  of  the  greater  value  be- 
cause he  does  not  belong  to  the  conserva- 
tive school  of  criticism  on  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 

V. — AS    TO    THE   SINAITIC   JOURNEY. 

In  his  "  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands," 
Sir  J.  Dawson  has  examined,  with  elaborate 
care,  first  the  dwelling-place  of  the  Israel- 
ites in  Egypt,  and  their  probable  route  from 
it  until  they  cross  the  Yam  Suph ;  and 
then,  still  more  particularly,  the  account  of 
their  journeyings  beyond  the  Red  Sea.  His 
conclusion  is  that  they  crossed  at  a  point,* 
now  forming  part  of  the  Bitter  Lakes  of  the 
Isthmus,  but  then  a  part  of  the  Red  Sea 
itself,  which  was  fed  in  ancient  times  by  a 
branch  of  the  Nile  flowing  eastwards.f 
Yam  Suph,  or  sea  of  weeds,  is  the  name 
given  to  it  in  the  Bible. | 

Beyond  the  Red  Sea,  and  onwards  to  the 
Sinaitic  region,  the  country  has  been  sur- 
veyed by  officers  of  the  British  Ordnance. 
*  P.  389.  t  r.  392.  X  p.  404- 


OF   SCRIPIURE.  277 

All  the  instruments  of  modern  science  have 
been  employed ;  the  results  have  been  pub- 
lished on  a  large  scale  ;  and  the  effect,  as 
reported  by  Sir  J.  Dawson,  has  been  "  entire 
agreement  of  the  members  of  the  party  on 
essential  points  "  ;  *  and  the  ascertainment 
of  such  complete  coincidence  of  the  actual 
features  of  the  country  with  the  require- 
ments of  the  Mosaic  narrative,  as  to  prove 
it  to  be  a  contemporary  record  of  the 
events  to  which  it  relates. f 

The  route  pursued  by  the  Israelites 
down  the  coast  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  then 
to  the  eastward,  was  peculiar,  as  it  seems  to 
have  been  dictated  by  a  combination  of 
strategical  considerations  with  those  which 
concerned  the  subsistence  of  the  people,  and 
especially  the  supply  of  water.  The  local 
indications  are  on  this  account  all  the  more 
remarkable.  It  is  not  possible,  without  ex- 
ceeding the  limits  proper  for  the  present 
observations,  to  convey  the  full  force  of 
the  evidence  which  shows  how  the  stamp 
of  Egypt  was  impressed  both  upon  the 
Israelites  themselves,  and  upon  the  narrative 
in  Exodus  of  their  escape  ;  inasnmch  as  it 
depends  on  the  details  of  measurement, 
atmosphere,  water-supply,  and  other  physi- 
cal circumstances,  and  upon  their  relation 
to  the  Mosaic  narrative.  The  conclusions 
*  Pp.  371,406  tP-407- 


278 


RECENT  CORROBORATIONS 


reached  have  no  direct  bearing  upon  the 
proofs  of  a  Divine  revelation  through  the 
Scriptures,  but  they  are  of  great  historical 
importance  in  establishing  the  credit  of  the 
Book,  and  its  contemporaneous  character  as 
to  the  substance  of  its  contents. 


Conclusion. 


Conclusion. 

IN  closing  this  series  of  papers,  it  is  right 
to  record  the  admission  that  they  can 
lay  no  claim  to  anything  more  than  touch- 
ing, and  that  but  slight!}',  certain  parts  of  a 
great  subject.  They  omit  many  things 
important,  perhaps  some  things  essential. 
The  essay  on  the  Creation  Story,  indeed, 
aims  at  bringing  out,  in  lieu  of  simple 
apology,  what  seems  to  me  a  distinct  and 
specific  argument  in  proof  of  a  Divine  Rev- 
elation. Except  in  tliat  instance,  their  main 
design  is  to  draw  out,  so  far  as  they  go,  the 
force  of  that  cumulative  evidence  witnessing 
to  such  a  Revelation,  which  has  been  so 
wisely  summed  up  by  Bishop  Butler ;  *  and 
also  to  disembarrass  belief  in  it  from  those 
difficulties  which  properly  belong  not  to 
itself,  but  to  exaggerations  and  excrescences 
against  which  it  can  carry  no  absolute 
guarantee.  They  form  the  testimony  of  an 
old   man,  in  the  closing  period  of  his  life. 

*  "Analogy,"  part  ii.  chap.  vii. 

(281) 


282  CONCLUSION. 

It  is  rendered  with  no  special  qualification 
but  possibly  this  one.  Few  persons  of  our 
British  race  have  lived  through  a  longer 
period  of  incessant  argumentative  conten- 
tion, or  have  had  a  more  diversified  experi- 
ence in  trying  to  ascertain,  for  purposes 
immediately  practical,  the  difference  between 
tenable  and  untenable  positions.  Such  ex- 
perience is  directly  conversant  with  the 
nature  of  man  and  his  varied  relations ; 
and  I  own  my  inclination  to  suppose  that  it 
is  more  germane  to  the  treatment  of  subjects 
that  lie  directly  between  collective  man  and 
the  Author  of  his  being,  more  calculated  to 
neutralize  deficiencies,  though  not  to  impart 
capacity,  than  a  familiarity  with  those  ma- 
terial sciences  which  have  supplied  an  arena 
for,  perhaps,  the  most  splendid  triumphs  of 
the  century  now  far  advanced  in  its  decline. 
On  this  subject  has  been  recorded  the  nobly 
candid  admission  of  Mr.  Darwin,*  respect- 
ing the  possible  atrophy,  through  disuse,  of 
the  mental  organs  on  which  our  higher 
tastes  depend.  Among  those  organs  I  can- 
not but  include  the  organ  of  belief  On 
this  subject,  however,  I  am  a  biassed  wit- 
ness. It  is  for  others  to  judge.  I  only 
offer  a  plea,  not  in  proof  of  ability,  but 
only  in  extenuation  of  defect. 

There  is  in  certain  circles  a  very  confi- 
*  "  Life  and  Letters,"  vol.  i.  pp.  loi,  I02. 


CONCL  US  I  ON. 


283 


dent  disposition  to  assert  that,  as  regards 
belief  in  supernaturalism,  the  intellectual 
battle  has  been  fought  and  won,  and  that 
victory  is  on  the  side  of  negation.  It  ought 
to  be  observed,  before  proceeding  further, 
that  supernaturalism  is  a  term  which  in- 
cludes the  idea  of  God.  A  sense  may  be, 
indeed,  loosely  given  to  it,  which  confines  it 
to  the  mode  of  His  manifestations.  But, 
essentially,  if  God  be  there,  the  super- 
natural is  there;  and  the  developments 
which  proceed  from  that  idea,  even  if  they 
had  been  crushed  and  stamped  out,  might 
germinate  again.  It  is  not,  then,  a  ques- 
tion of  excrescences  or  of  details  ;  the  life 
and  essence  of  religion  are  at  stake.  It  is 
the  question  of  belief  in  what  is  not  perhaps 
scientifically,  but  yet  intelligibly,  termed  a 
personal  God. 

I  shall  presently  enter  on  the  moral  causes 
which  may  have  contributed,  and  even 
mainly  contributed,  to  stimulate  the  nega- 
tive tendencies  of  the  day.  I  am  now  only 
endeavoring  partially  to  test  the  justice  of  a 
Paean,  which  is  not  warranted  even  by  the 
established  fact  of  a  victory.  The  Pjean  of 
the  victor  is  the  epitaph  of  the  vanquished: 
and  the  victory,  which  is  to  warrant  it,  must 
be  a  victory  belonging  to  that  class  of  vic- 
tories, which  end  the  war. 

That   such  a  song  of  triumph  is  raised 


284  CONCLUSION. 

there  can  be  little  doubt.  It  seems  to  have 
inspired  the  recent  Articles  of  that  very  dis- 
tinguished and  not  less  upright  writer,  Pro- 
fessor Huxley,  in  the  NinctceiitJi  CenUiry. 
But  I  have  never  seen  a  better  example  of 
the  plenary  satisfaction  which  possesses  the 
mind  of  many  among  the  negative  athletes 
than  in  the  following  passage,  taken  from  a 
writer  of  ability  : 

"  I  set  out  from  the  standpoint  that  the  mission  of 
Freethought  is  no  longer  to  hatter  down  oUl  faiths.  That 
has  been  long  ago  effectively  accomplished;  and  I,  for 
one,  am  ready  to  put  a  railing  round  the  ruins,  that  they 
may  be  preserved  from  desecration,  and  serve  as  a  land- 
mark !  Indeed,  I  confess  to  having  yawned  over  a  recent 
vigorous  indictment  of  Christianity."  * 

This  purports  to  be  a  description  of  a 
certain  state  of  facts. f  Now,  it  is  not  the 
first  time  that  we  have  heard  description  of 
the  kind.  Such  a  description  was  supplied 
in  an  earlier  time  by  no  less  a  person  than 
Bishop  Butler,  who,  I  apprehend,  was  not 
among  those  given  to  exaggeration.  His 
words  are  these  :  % 

*  Karl  Pearson,  "  Ethics  of  Freethought,"  Preface, 
p.  5.  The  dramatic  character  of  this  declaration  is  brought 
to  its  climax  by  the  fact  that  the  work  is  dedicated  to  the 
members  of  King's  College,  Cambridge. 

f  It  is  far  from  being  isolated.  The  same  ideas 
are  expressed  vi'ith  greater  vehemence  by  Dr.  Hard- 
wicke,  of  Sheffield,  in  a  preface  to  "  Evolution,"  Lon- 
don, 1890. 

\  From  the  Advertisement  to  the  "Analogy." 


CONCLUSION.  285 

«'It  is  come,  I  know  not  how,  to  be  taken  for  granted 
by  many  persons  that  Christianity  is  not  so  much  as  a 
subject  of  inquiry;  but  that  it  is  now  at  length  discovered 
to  be  fictitious.  And,  accordingly,  they  treat  it  as  if,  in 
the  present  age,  this  were  an  agreed  point  among  all 
people  of  discernment,  and  nothing  remained  but  to  set 
it  up  as  a  principal  subject  of  mirth  and  ridicule;  as  it 
were  by  way  of  reprisals,  for  its  having  so  long  inter- 
rupted the  pleasures  of  the  world." 

It  seems  pretty  plain  that  at  the  time 
when  the  Bishop  published  the  "Analogy  "  * 
a  wave  of  unbelief  was  passing  over  the 
land.  The  spiritual  declension  of  the  Han- 
overian period  had  set  in  ;  and  the  standard 
of  life,  and  of  the  ideas  current  concerning 
life,  was  sinking  almost  from  day  to  day. 
The  negative  movement  of  the  period  may 
have  been  quite  as  vigorous,  as  widespread, 
and  as  self-confident,  as  that  of  which  we 
now  feel  the  pressure.  Yet  it  dwindled,  and 
almost  disappeared  ;  and  we  may  even  say 
that,  at  the  time  of  Johnson's  social  pre- 
dominance it  left  hardly  a  trace  behind. f 
Nor  was  this  either  the  first  or  the  last  of 

*  In  1736. 

f  In  1797,  when  Wilberforce  published  his  "  Practical 
View,"  he  spoke  of  "absolute  unbelievers"  as  a  class 
which  he  feared  was  an  increasing  one  (chap.  vii.  sect.  3). 
Perhaps  the  great  war  of  the  years  1793-1 81 5  tended 
to  debilitate  the  religious  mind  of  the  country  by 
drawing  off  mental  force  in  another  direction.  I  have, 
however,  heard  from  persons  of  high  authority,  who  were 
old  when  I  was  young,  that  the  French  Revohition  gen- 
erated a  distinctly  religious  reaction  on  this  side  of  the 
Channel. 


286  CONCLUSION. 

the  reverses  which  negation  has  suffered. 
At  the  time  of  the  great  Renascence  of 
ancient  learning  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries,  the  cultivated  mind  of 
Europe  sank  far  back  into  Paganism ;  but 
that  ebb  was  succeeded  by  a  flowing  tide. 
Again,  in  my  own  earher  days,  say  in  the 
second  quarter  of  the  present  century,  there 
was  a  great  revival,  both  of  the  dogmatic 
sense  and  of  the  religious  life  in  England  ; 
and  the  temper  of  the  time,  in  the  thinking 
world,  was  strongly  adverse  alike  to  world- 
liness,  to  indifference,  and  to  unbelief  No 
man,  perhaps,  was  better  qualified  to  pass  a 
judgment  on  this  subject  than  the  late  Dr. 
Whewell ;  and  he,  writing  in  November 
1853,  and  referring  to  an  opinion  expressed 
by  a  contemporary  of  smaller  calibre  than 
himself,  says,  "  As  to  his  assertion  that 
scepticism  is  increasing,  it  is  contrary  to  all 
my  knowledge  of  the  cultivated  classes."  * 
But  as  the  third  quarter  proceeded,  the 
sceptical  movement  set  in  with  a  wide  and 
subtle  power.  History,  then,  seems  to  prove 
that  these  negative  movenients  are  subject 
not  onlv  to  a  hazard,  but  even  to  a  law,  of 
mutation ;  and  that  every  one  of  them, 
when  it  has  done  its  work,  may  cease  to  be. 
Of  one  thing  we  may  be  assured:  such  a 
movement  derives  no  real  strength,  no  true 
*  "  Life  of  Whewell,"  p.  431. 


CONCLUSION.  287 

promise  of  permanence,  from  an  overween- 
ing self-assertion.  The  question  is  not  what 
negation  thinks  of  itself  and  of  the  oppos- 
ing forces,  but  what  is  the  intrinsic  strength 
of  the  reasoning  on  which  it  rests. 

I    have  said    that,  when    it  has  done  its 
work,  it  may  cease  to  be.     For  doubtless  it 
has   a  work  to  do.     The  wave  that  breaks 
and  foams  upon  the  rock  exhibits  to  us  not 
merely,    as    it    might    seem,  a    picture    of 
violence  and  a  source  of  danger,  but  a  frac- 
tion of  the  vast  oceanic  movement,  which  is 
the  indispensable  condition  of  health    and 
purity  both  to  the  water  and  the  air,  and  to 
the  populations  by  which  they  are  respec- 
tively inhabited.     If  we  believe  in  Providen- 
tial government  we  might  rationally  believe, 
even  where  we  did  not  see,  that  those  boast- 
ful, and  even  powerful,  agencies  are  not  with- 
out their  purposes  prefigured,  and  bounded 
too,  in  the  counsels  of  God.     It  seems,  how- 
ever, not  difficult   to  discern   a  portion  of 
those  purposes  ;  which  may  have  been,  first, 
to  dispel  the  lethargy  and  stimulate  the  zeal 
of  believers ;  and,  secondly,    to    admonish 
their    faith  to  keep  terms  with  reason,  by 
testing  it  at  all  its  points ;  lest  fancy,  or  pride, 
or  indolence,  or  the  intolerant  spirit  of  sect 
or  party,  should  have  imported   into  their 
beliefs  merely  human  elements  that  it  may 
be  very  needful  to  eject. 


288  CONCLUSION. 

While  leaving  to  the  champions  of  nega- 
tion their  title,  whatever  it  may  be,  to  insist 
on  the  utter  blindness  of  belief,  this  at  least 
I  urge  upon  them  :  they  ought  to  under- 
stand that  it  remains  just  as  possible  now  as 
it  was  in  the  early  or  middle  ages,  to  uphold 
belief  in  perfect  good  faith  and  with  immov- 
able conviction.  In  the  advance  of  scien- 
tific knowledge,  and  of  the  critical  art,  I  for 
one  see  much  that  corrects  and  chastens 
what  was  temporary  or  accidental  in  our 
persuasions  concerning  the  subjects  of  be- 
lief, but  nothing  that  disintegrates  or  under- 
mines the  basis  of  belief  itself;  much,  on 
the  contrary,  that  confirms  it. 

It  is  sometimes  taken  for  granted  or  al- 
leged, that  religion  or  its  champions  are  re- 
duced to  the  necessity  of  defending  their 
cause  only  with  arms  which  have  been 
superseded,  either  by  the  introduction  of 
forces  previously  unknown,  or  by  new  forms 
of  construction  better  adapted  to  their  ends. 
In  a  spirit  which  seems  to  fluctuate  between 
pity  and  a  good-natured  contempt,  Professor 
Huxley  describes  "the  old-fashioned  artil- 
lery of  the  Churches,"  on  the  one  side,  and 
"  the  weapons  of  precision,"  used  by  the 
advancing  forces  of  science  on  the  other.  * 
Now  let  it  be  remembered  that  we  have  not 
here  to  do  with  the  masses  of  mankind,  to 
*  A-ineteenth  Century,  July  1890,  p.  22, 


CONCLUSION.  289 

whom   historical    and   scientific  arguments, 
whether    negative  or    affirmative,  are,  and 
probably  must  remain,  inaccessible.     We  are 
speaking  of  that  standing    army,  so  to  call 
it,  of  more  or  less  instructed  persons,  who, 
on  the  one  side  and   the  other,   execute  all 
the  fighting  on  behalf  of  the  community  at 
large.     Writing,  then,   of  those  within  the 
palisades  of  the  lists,  and   not   appealing  to 
mere  numbers,  I  demur  entirely  to  the  state- 
ment of  Professor  Huxley.     I  deny  that  the 
weapons  of  belief  are  antiquated  :    I   pause 
even  before  admitting  that  those  of  scien- 
tific men  are   always,  except   in   their  own 
particular   sciences,   weapons    of  precision. 
When  we  decline  the   appeal  to   the  estab- 
lished facts  of  science,  or  to  the  conclusions 
upheld  or  reasonably  sustained   by  human 
experience  through  history,  or  when  we  fall 
into  the  trap  laid  for  us  by  Hume,  and  treat 
the  acceptance  of  our  "  holy  religion  "  as  a 
matter  in  no  way  amenable  to  the  view  of 
reason;    then   we   may  be    justly  charged 
with  the  use  of  weapons  never  worthy,  and 
no  longer  serviceable.     But  until  then,  we 
may  quietly  endeavor  to  proceed  as  rational 
beings    upon    rational    considerations.      If 
these  principles  have  not   uniformly   guided 
me  in  the  composition   of  the  essays  I  am 
now  bringing  to  a  close  (on  which   it  is  not 
for   me   to   judge),  at   least   I    can  say  that 
19 


290 


CONCL  USION. 


there  has  not  been  in  any  instance,  even  by 
a  hair's-breadth,  an  intentional  deviation 
from  them. 

The  fact,  however,  of  a  strong  and  wide- 
spread negative  movement  among  impor- 
tant and  active  sections  of  our  countrymen 
during  the  latter  portion  of  this  century  is 
admitted  ;  and  now  I  propose  to  offer  some 
remarks  upon  its  alleged  or  probable 
causes. 

I  shall  speak,  first,  of  the  detriment  which 
religion  is  supposed  to  have  suffered  through 
the  great  and  wonderful  advance  both  of 
science  and  of  rational  speculation,  mostly 
physical,  but  also  critical,  archaeological,  and 
historical. 

Secondly,  of  the  detriment  it  has  suffered 
through  the  exposure  to  the  world  of  er- 
roneous notions  about  religion,  which  are 
due  to  believers  themselves  :  a  detriment 
attending,  in  different  manners  and  degrees, 
either  the  retention,  or  even  the  abandon- 
ment of  these  opinions.  Such  detriment 
seems  to  me  certain  to  ensue,  when  we  up- 
lift into  the  region  of  dogmatic  truth  (for 
example)  such  propositions  as  the  following. 
I.  That  the  material  volume  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  translated  into  our  tongue,  with 
every  fact  and  sentiment  it  contains,  must 
be  received  under  the  same  (so  to  call  it) 
materialized  conception,  as  that  under  which 


CONCL  USION. 


291 


Mahometans    are    supposed  to  receive  the 

Koran,  and  held  absolutely  true  ;  or  2.  that 

there  is  no  progression  or  distinction  in  the 

^_  inspiration  to  which  it  is  to  be   referred  ;  or 

'  3,  that  the  Adam  portrayed  in  Scripture  was 

the  exclusive  source  of  the  race  ;  or  4,  that 

he  was  furnished  with  large  intellectual  de- 

*  velopment  and  endowment. 

Thirdly,  I  shall  speak  of  the  strength 
which  the  negative  movement  has  in  my 
opinion  derived  from  causes  greatly  and 
subtly  effective,  yet  wholly  extrinsic  to 
itself;  causes,  which  I  take  to  constitute  its 
principal  strength. 

Of  the  first  head  I  might  dispose  very 
briefly.  I  have  enumerated  some  of  the 
great  services  which  science  has  rendered, 
and  is  rendering,  to  religion.  Of  the 
damage  it  has  inflicted  I  have  heard  much  ; 
but  the  allegations  commonly  appear  to  me 
upon  examination  to  be  found  untrue  :  in 
some  cases,  like  that  of  the  first  Chapter  of 
Genesis,  to  be  not  only  untrue  but  contra- 
dictory of  the  truth,  inasmuch  as  science, 
when  just  principles  of  interpretation  are 
called  in,  is  found  to  have  established  what 
it  has  been  charged  with  destroying. 

The  nearest  semblance,  that  has  attracted 
my  notice,  to  palpable  contradiction  between 
modern  science  and  Holy  Writ  is  upon  the 
statement  that   sin  brought  death  into  the 


292 


COACL  USION. 


ivorld,  whereas  we  now  know  that  death  was 
antecedent  to  the  introduction  of  man,  and 
therefore  of  sin.  But  in  Scripture,  be3'ond 
all  dispute,  the  word  death  has  many  senses. 
For  example,  it  means  habitually,  severance 
of  spirit  from  body.  It  means  separation  * 
from  God,  and  domination  of  body  over 
spirit.*  It  means  reunion  with  God,  and 
domination  of  spirit  over  bod\'.  f  As  it 
means  the  soul's  disease,  severance  from 
God,  so  also  it  means  the  final  consumma- 
tion of  that  disease  in  the  second  death. 
These  are  various  senses  of  the  term,  dis- 
persed about  the  Bible.  How  do  we  know 
that  St.  Paul  used  the  words  in  the  first  of 
these  and  not  in  the  second?  And  if  he 
had  used  it  in  the  first  sense,  and  had  in- 
tended to  declare  that  there  was  no  physical 
death  before  the  sin  of  Adam,  how  much 
would  this  prove  ?  Only  that  the  apostle 
was  ignorant  of  any  pre-Adamite  history 
of  the  planet,  and  that  we  should  have  to 
ask  whether  such  ignorance,  when  proved, 
would  destroy  or  impair  the  overflowing 
proofs  that  he  was  commissioned  of  God  to 
speak,  and  was  taught  of  God  how  to  speak, 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world  ? 

It  remains,  however  a  vital  portion  of  our 
duty,  on  the  one  hand,  to  estimate  and  to 

*  Luke  i.  79;  John  viii.  51  ;   Eph.  ii.  I. 
f  Col.  ii.  20;  iii.  3;   2  Tim.  ii.  II. 


CONCLUSION. 


293 


measure  aright  the  differences  between  the 
Divine  Revelation  in  itself,  and  the  subjec- 
tive conceptions  entertained  and  propagated 
concerning  it ;  and  on  the  other  to  inquire 
pretty  strictly  whether  the  professors  of 
science  are  sometimes  apt  to  push  their 
legitimate  authority  beyond  their  own 
bounds  into  provinces  where  it  becomes  an 
usurpation,  and  whether  the  weapons  which 
they  hurl,  are  then  always  "  weapons  of 
precision  "  ? 

On  the  first  of  these  two  points,  I  will 
give  an  illustration  of  my  meaning  from  the 
latest  writings  of  the  Achilles  of  the  op- 
posing army.  In  a  very  recent  article^ 
which  deals  chiefly  with  the  Deluge,*  Mr. 
Huxley,  in  a  succinct  but  decided  way,  ad- 
ministers capital  punishment  also  to  the 
Creation  Story  of  Genesis.  He  does  not 
enter  much  into  particulars,  but  he  says  the 
Israelites  were  like  all  other  men,  curious 
to  know  their  origin.  Now,  so  far  as  the 
records  of  the  past  go,  the  cosmological 
curiosity  of  the  ancients  appears  to  have 
been  comparatively  small.  The  cosmol- 
ogies of  Babylon  and  Egypt  hold  an  utterly 
insignificant  place  in  their  systems  of 
knowledge.  The  Greeks,  perhaps  the  most 
inquisitive  of  men,  cared  little  or  nothing 
for   these  things,  through  many    centuries 

*  Nineteenth   Century,  July  1890,  p.  21. 


2Q4  CONCLUSION. 

after  they  had  felt  the  passion  of  high 
poetry  and  of  the  legends  associated  with  it ; 
and  when  their  schools  of  philosophy  arose, 
they  dealt,  and  this  only  in  outline,  with 
the  origin  of  material  things,  rather  than 
of  men.  There  was  no  nation,  I  believe,  ex- 
cept the  Israelites,  whose  cosmology  held  a 
classical  place  in  their  memory  and  in  their 
devotions.  But  I  am  perhaps  wrong  in 
arguing  the  question.  What  I  ought  rather 
to  point  out  is  that  while  Professor  Huxley  is 
fond,  as  he  well  may  be,  of  claiming  to  rep- 
resent science,  his  dichivi  is  entirely  out- 
side the  sciences  he  represents. 

Again,  in  the  same  short  space  he  proceeds 
to  lay  it  down  that  an  opinion  given  by  Dr. 
Riehm  on  the  subject  of  the  seven  Mosaic 
days  (/.  t\,  that  they  are  natural  days)  should 
be  final.  We  claim,  however,  to  be,  if  not 
Freethinkers,  yet  free  thinkers.  Why  are 
we  to  renounce  the  faculty  of  discourse,  to 
square  our  minds  to  those  of  Dr.  Riehm, 
to  let  him  do  the  thinking  for  us,  and  to 
accept  his  words  as  "  final  "  ?  Simply 
because  Mr.  Huxley  has  said  so.  What 
right  has  Professor  Huxley  to  close  this 
question  ?  For  the  question  whether  the 
Creation  Story  of  Genesis  describes  solar 
days  or  not,  is  no  more  a  scientific  question, 
than  whether  Parliament  should  or  should 
not  meet  in  November,  or  whether  Shake- 


CONCLUSION. 


295 


speare  wrote  or  did  not  write  the  whole  of 
"  Henry  the  Eighth." 

But  I  have  now  to  ask  whether  the 
weapons  used  by  this  most  distinguished 
scientist  are  always  "  weapons  of  precision  "  ? 
On  scientific  grounds  he  condemns,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  narrative  of  the  Deluge,  and 
pronounces  it  to  be  fabulous.  One  of  his 
reasons  is  this.  The  Mosaic  account  assigns 
a  period  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  days  (the 
Tablets  give  only  seven)  for  the  subsidence 
of  the  waters.  Against  this  statement  Mr. 
Huxley  advances  a  dictum,  of  which  the 
subject-matter  is  unquestionably  scientific. 
He  gives  the  length  of  the  Mesopotamian 
plain  *  at  three  to  four  hundred  miles,  and 
the  elevation  of  the  higher  end  at  five  to 
six  hundred  feet.  Had  this  plain  been  so 
covered  with  water,  says  Mr.  Huxley,  a 
**  furious  torrent  "  would  have  rushed  down- 
wards, and  instead  of  an  hundred  and  fifty 
days  the  plain  generally  (this  word  no  doubt 
is  meant  to  except  particular  hollows  of  the 
ground)  would  have  been  left  bare  in  a  very 
few  hours. 

Let  us  try  this  question  a  little  more 
nearly.  If  the  length  of  the  plain  be  350 
miles,  and  the  fall  525  feet,  we  have  a  descent 
of  one  foot  and  a  half  per  mile ;  and  this 
descent,  says  the  Professor,  would  cause  a 
*  Ibid.  p.  15. 


2q6  conclusion. 

furious  torrent,  such  as  would  dear  the 
plain  in  a  very  few  hours.  Let  us  assume 
twenty  miles  an  hour  as  the  rate  of  the 
"  furious  torrent  "  ;  on  which  assumption, 
the  plain  would  be  bare  in  seventeen  and  a 
half  hours.  I  take  these  rates  and  figures 
so  as  to  translate  approximately  into  definite 
quantities  Mr.  Huxley's  more  general  ex- 
pressions. 

One  foot  and  a  half  per  mile  represents  a 
gradient  of  siVo.  I  have  sought  informa- 
tion on  this  subject  from  an  engineer,  who 
is  in  charge  of  a  portion  of  one  of  our  rivers. 
I  understand  from  him  that  a  fall  of  one  in 
three  thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty 
would  probably  produce  a  current  of  about 
two  miles  an  hour.  It  may  require  all  Pro- 
fessor Huxley's  resources  to  show  that  a 
current  of  two  miles  an  hour  is  a  "  furious 
torrent";  or  that  to  represent  as  a  furious 
torrent  what  is  in  truth  an  extremely  slow 
stream  is  to  use  a  "  weapon  of  precision." 

My  informant,  indeed,  adds  that  each 
case  has  modifying  circumstances  of  its 
own,  and  must  be  judged  by  itself;  but  he 
likewise  tells  me  that  if,  instead  of  taking 
an  ordinary  English  river  we  remove  the 
banks,  and  suppose  the  stream  indefinitely 
widened,  the  fall  remaining  the  same,  the 
rate  of  the  current  would  be  not  increased 
but  slackened.     Thus  we  seem  to  get  farther 


CONCLUSION.  297 

and  farther  from  the  "  weapons  of  precision." 
And  it  seems  j  ust  possible  that,  after  all ,  these 
weapons  may,  like  our  monster  guns,  some- 
times damage  those  who  handle  them,  or 
may  fail  to  batter  down  so  soon  as  is  ex- 
pected the  undoubtedly  ancient  walls  of  the 
fortress  of  belief* 

The  case  to  which  I  have  last  referred  is 
one  of  elementary  hydraulics.  The  obliga- 
tion to  be  precise  may  be  thought  to  rise 
with  the  elevation  of  the  subject.  If  we 
may  not  ask  from  the  scientific  man  that 
when  he  touches  questions  of  the  innermost 
feelings  of  believers,  and  of  the  highest 
destinies  of  man,  he  should  be  reverent,  yet 
surely  we  are  entitled  to  require  of  him  that 
he  should  be  circumspect;  that  he  should 
take  reasonable  care  to  include  in  his  survey 
of  a  case  all  elements  which  are  obviously 
essential  to  a  right  judgment  upon  it. 

In  another  recent  article,t  Mr.  Huxley 
has  touched  very  lofty  ground  indeed.  He 
selects  as  a  crucial  instance  for  the  trial  of 
the  Gospels,  and  with  them  of  the  character 
of  our  Lord,  the  miracle  which  happened  in 
the  country  of  the  Gergesenes,  or  Gadarenes. 
It   is   narrated,  with   certain   variations,  by 

*  It  is  not  without  interest  to  remark  that,  on  the  data 
before  us,  the  time  required  for  clearing  the  plain  would 
be  about  162  hours,  or  nearly  seven  days,  the  actual  time 
mentioned  in  the  Babylonian  account. 

f  Nineteenth  Century,  Feb.  1889,  pp.  171,  1 72. 


298  CONCLUSION. 

three  Evangelists  ;  the  essential  point  being, 
that  evil  spirits,  cast  out  from  the  body  of  a 
demoniac,  are  permitted  to  enter  into  a  herd 
of  swine,  and  that  the  animals  rush  furiously 
into  the  sea.  Mr.  Huxley,  as  a  physiologist, 
disbelieves  in  demoniacal  possession,  and 
that  is  the  point  that  has  commonly  attracted 
the  chief  share  of  attention  in  connection 
with  this  miracle.  Such  a  physiological 
judgment  it  is  not  for  me  to  discuss.  But 
he  also  very  properly  touches  the  question 
of  the  injury  inflicted  by  the  destruction  of 
the  swine,  which  was  due  to  our  Lord's  per- 
mission. Mr.  Huxley  observes  that  the 
Evangelist  has  no  "inkling  of  the  legal  and 
moral  difficulties  of  the  case,"  and  adds,  the 
devils  entered  into  the  swine  "  to  the  great 
loss  and  damage  of  the  innocent  Gerasene 
or  Gadarcne  pig-owners."  Further,  "  Every- 
thing that  I  know  of  law  and  justice  con- 
vinces me  that  the  wanton  destruction  of 
other  people's  property  is  a  misdemeanor 
of  evil  example." 

So  then,  after  eighteen  centuries  of  wor- 
ship offered  to  our  Lord  by  the  most  culti- 
vated, the  most  developed,  and  the  most 
progressive  portion  of  the  human  race,  it 
has  been  reserved  to  a  scientific  inquirer  to 
discover  that  He  was  no  better  than  a  law- 
breaker and  an  evil-doer.  It  is  sometimes 
said  that  the  greatest  discoveries  are  the 


CONCL  USION. 


299 


most  simple.  And  this,  if  really  a  dis- 
covery, is  the  simplest  of  them  all.  So  sim- 
ple that  he  who  runs  may  read,  for  it  lies- 
on  the  very  surface  of  the  page.  The  ordi- 
nary reader  can  only  put  the  wondering- 
question,  how,  in  such  a  matter,  came  the 
honors  of  originality  to  be  reserved  to  our 
time  and  to  Professor  Huxley? 

Simple  as  it  has  been  from  his  point  of 
view,  the  case  *  is  to  a  reflective  mind  a  very 
peculiar  one.  It  offers  the  only  occasion 
on  which  our  Lord  exercised,  or  co-operated 
in  the  exercise,  of  preternatural  power  for 
the  destruction  of  life. 

It  is  observable  that  in  certain  instances, 
such  as  that  of  the  fig-tree,  and  of  the  ass 
with  her  colt.  He  seems  to  assert  Himself 
as  the  universal  owner.  He  is  the  Lord  to 
kill,  as  well  as  to  make  alive,  according  to 
His  wisdom.  But  this  consideration,  to 
whatever  conclusion  it  might  lead,  is  of 
what  may  be  termed  an  esoteric  nature,  and 
is  hardly  suited  to  an  argument  against  the 
negative  school,  who  are  plainly  entitled  to 
raise  the  question  of  the  swine  as  it  affects 
the  rights  of  property.  Why,  then,  does 
our  Lord  in  this  instance  see  cause  to  vary 
from  the  philanthropic  and  beneficent  ten- 
dencies, which  usually  mark  His  miraculous 
agency  ?  It  has  been  observed  that  the 
*  Malt.  viii.  30;   Mark  v.  2  ;  Luke  viii.  31. 


300 


CONCLUSION. 


entrance  into  the  swine  may  have  been  per- 
mitted, in  order  to  certify  the  man  or  men 
reheved  of  the  reahtv  of  the  crreat  and 
hardly  credible  deliverance  vouchsafed  to 
him.  And  again,  that  the  willing  departure 
of  the  demons  may  have  spared  the  victim 
or  victims  from  the  tortures,  which  it  is 
natural  to  suppose  would  have  attended 
their  violent  ejection.  Yet  something  more 
seems  to  be  desirable  in  order  to  meet  the 
question  that  has  just  been  raised.  I  find 
the  answer  to  it  in  the  reasonable,  and  (as 
it  seems  to  me)  almost  necessary  supposi- 
tion, that  the  possession  of  the  swine  was 
unlawful,  and,  therefore,  was  justly  punish- 
able by  the  ensuing  loss. 

The  scene  is  described  by  different  Evan- 
gelists in  different  terms.  It  is  the  country 
of  the  Gergesenes,  or  the  country  of  the 
Gadarenes.  The  distinction  is  immaterial 
to  the  present  purpose.  It  was  apparently 
part  of  the  land  of  the  Girgashites,*  one  of 
the  seven  Canaanitish  nations,  and  was  sub- 
ject, therefore,  as  a  matter  of  religious  obli- 
gation, to  the  Mosaic  law.  Now  that  law 
contained  a  prohibition  to  use  various  meats, 
among  which  pork  was  included.  But  in 
the  case  of  swine  the  law  went  farther  than 
in  other  cases,  and  it  was  forbidden  even  to 
to  touch  the  carcass, f  Such  a  prohibition 
*  Deut.  vii.  i.  f  Lev.  xi.  7,  8. 


CONCLUSION. 


3or 


of  course  precluded  all  use  whatever  of  the 
animals  when  dead ;  and  it  was  only  for  use- 
when  dead  that  there  could  be  any  object  ia 
keeping  them  at  all.  Nor  was  this  prohibi- 
tion merely  ceremonial.  It  was  immediately 
related  to  the  health  of  the  people,  as  the 
use  of  pork  (I  am  informed)  produces  the 
disease  called  trichinosis,  and  I  understand 
that  the  veto  is  down  to  this  day  regarded 
by  well-informed  Jews  as  of  a  serious  im- 
portance ;  and  is  directly  connected  with  a. 
high  sanitary  condition. 

It  may  be  that  the  deeper  counsels  of 
Providence  are  more  implicated  in  tliis  pro- 
hibition, than  even  a  less  superficial  reader 
of  the  Gospels  than  Professor  Huxley  might 
at  first  sight  suppose.  That  calling  of  the 
Hebrew  people,  which  is  set  before  us  in 
the  Old  Testament,  demanded  in  them 
above  and  beyond  all  other  qualities  the 
quality  of  persistence.  It  may  be  that  this 
purpose  required  the  constitution  of  the 
race  in  body  as  well  as  in  many  points  of 
character  to  be  raised  to  a  point  unusually 
high.  We  know  that  man  is  a  compound 
being,  and  we  know  that  the  Mosaic  code 
took  cognizance  of  bodily  health  to  an  ex- 
tent quite  unknown  in  other  schemes  of 
legislation.  In  the  Book  of  Exodus,* 
reference  was  made  to  the  superior  forma- 
*  Ch.  i.  19. 


302 


CONCLUSION. 


tion  of  the  Hebrew  women  for  the  great 
office  of  a  mother,  and  I  am  informed  that 
the  modern  researches  of  anatomists,  sup- 
porting the  text,  refer  the  fact  to  a  physical 
cause.  I  have  learned  enough  from  some 
high  medical  authorities  to  be  warranted  in 
saying  that  the  sanitary  qualities  of  the 
Jewish  race,  even  in  our  own  time,  and  their 
superior  longevity,  appear  in  no  small  man- 
ner to  be  due  to  the  strict  observance  of 
the  Mosaic  law.  These  remarks  may  be 
justifiable  in  connection  with  what  I  have 
said  of  the  description  of  authority,  which 
they  attach  to  a  particular  prohibition.  Yet 
for  the  immediate  purpose  of  the  argument 
it  may  suffice  to  have  pointed  out  the  il- 
legality of  keeping  swine. 

Mr.  Huxley,  exercising  his  rapid  judg- 
ment on  the  text,  does  not  appear  to  have 
encumbered  himself  with  the  labor  of  in- 
quiring what  anybody  else  had  known  or 
said  about  it.  He  has  thus  missed  a  point 
which  might  have  been  set  up  in  support  of 
his  accusation  against  our  Lord,  Some 
•commentators  have  alleged  the  authority 
of  Josephus  for  stating  that  Gadara  was 
a  cit}^  of  Greeks  rather  than  of  Jews,  from 
"whence  it  might  be  inferred  that  to  keep 
swine  was  innocent  and  lawful.  This  is  not 
quite  the  place  for  a  critical  examination  of 
the    matter;  but  I  have  examined    it,  and 


CONCLUSION.  303 

have  satisfied  myself  that  Josephus  gives  no 
reason  whatever  to  suppose  that  the  popu- 
lation of  Gadara,  still  less  (if  less  may  be) 
the  population  of  the  neighborhood,  and 
least  of  all  the  swine-herding  or  lower* 
portion  of  that  population,  were  other  than 
Hebrews,  bound  by  the  Mosaic  law.  Now, 
this  being  the  case,  the  punishment  inflicted 
upon  the  owners  of  the  swine  by  the  per- 
mission of  our  Lord,  did  not  constitute  a 
breach, but  rather  a  vindication  of  the  law; 
as  a  law  would  be  vindicated  if  casks  of 
smuggled  spirits  were  caught  and  broken 
open  after  landing,  and  their  contents  wasted 
on  the  ground. t 

Surely  if  these  were  only  possibilities,  in- 
stead of  rather  cogent  likelihoods,  they 
should  have  been  examined  and  weighed 
before  pronouncing  sentence  on  One  who, 
apart  from  all  other  claims,  must  be  supposed 
•to  have  had  some  considerable  reason  for 
deviating  from  His  usually  beneficent  and 
gentle  methods.  And,  again,  such  hand- 
over-head   reasoning  is    hard  to    reconcile 

*  It  is  clear  thnt  such  people  could  not  be  the  owners 
of  2000  swine.  But  (i)  this  is  stated  in  St.  Mark  only  \. 
(2)  it  is  stated  in  a  parenthesis,  whereas  it  would  natu- 
rally appear  in  the  direct  narrative;  (3)  so  large  a  num- 
ber suggests  the  error  of  a  copyist  or  very  possibly  a 
marginal  gloss. 

f  For  the  further  elucidation  of  this  important  case,  I 
have  added  a  note  at  the  end. 


304 


CONCLUSION. 


either  with  the  judicial  temper,  or  with  the 
claim,  nay  the  exclusive  claim,  to  the  honor 
of  using  "  weapons  of  precision." 

There  is  yet  another  point  of  great  im- 
portance,  in    regard    to    which   I  desire  to 
challenge    the    methods    pursued  by  some 
critics   of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  and  I  can- 
not do  better  than  again  proceed  on  the  re- 
cent article  of  Professor  Huxley.      He  finds, 
on  the  one  hand,  a  vast  mass  of  diversified 
tradition,  which  agrees  in  reportinga  Flood. 
He  finds  that,  as  we  draw  near  to  that  cen- 
tral   seat   of  civilization   in    Chaldaea,  from 
Avhich  Abraham   probably  carried  the   He- 
brew narrative,  it   unfolds  largely  into   de- 
tail, and  that  the  tradition,  which  thus  emi- 
grated, is  supported  in  many  very  remark- 
able   particulars  by  the  history  which  has 
been    recorded     in    the    Tablets.     Findinsf, 
however,  in  the  Mosaic  story  various  state- 
ments which   he  deems  to  be  irreconcilable- 
with   natural   laws,  he   protests,  not  against 
those  particular  statements,  but  against  the 
entire  relation  ;  and  he  casts   aside  without 
more  ado,  not  only  the  whole  tale  as  it  is 
given  in  Genesis,  but  the  large  mass  of  col- 
lateral testimony,  from  every  quarter  of  the 
globe,  which  supports  it.      Is  this  a  scientific, 
is    it    a    philosophical,    is     it    altogether    a 
rational  method  of  proceeding  ? 

Errors,  and  even  great  errors,  may  creep 


CONCLUSION.  305 

into  a  true  narration.  This  is  a  case  where 
the  tale  had,  according  to  all  appearances, 
been  carried  orally  for  ages,  perhaps  for 
very  many  ages,  before  the  race  that  have 
transmitted  it  to  us  had  the  means  of  giving 
it  a  written  form.  Was  it  not  likely  that 
some,  perhaps  even  that  much,  variation  of 
particulars  would  creep  in  ?  Could  they  be 
shut  out  except  by  miracle,  and  has  the 
Christian  Church  ever  taught  us  to  believe  in 
such  a  miracle  ?  Is  it  not  the  fact  that,  as  be- 
tween the  Chaldee  and  the  Hebrew  reports, 
the  essence  of  the  story  remains  in  absolute 
integrity  ?  A  divine  warning,  a  woful  preva- 
lence of  sin,  a  terrible  inundation  or  deluge 
as  a  punishment,  the  rescue  of  a  small  and 
righteous  remnant ;  not  only  do  these  things 
remain,  but  traditions  supporting  them  in 
several  or  in  all  points  have  descended  to 
us  independently  through  a  hundred  chan- 
nels ;  and  we  are  now  asked  to  believe  that, 
in  each  of  these,  imagination,  and  imagina- 
tion only,  has  been  at  work,  and  that  in 
each  of  them  it  has  worked  with  an  essen- 
tially (though  not  circumstantially)  identical 
result?  May  not  this  be  to  substitute  for  a 
great  physical  a  greater  moral  miracle,  and 
are  we  not  even  in  some  danger  of  exchang- 
ing the  unaccountable  for  the  absurd? 

My  conclusion,  then,  upon  this   part  of 
the  subject,  be  it  worth  much  or  little,   is 


20 


3o6 


CONCL  USION. 


threefold.  I  am  grateful  to  science,  both 
physical  and  historical,  for  the  noble  services 
it  has  rendered  to  belief  by  the  establish- 
ment of  truths,  or  by  the  rational  accept- 
ance of  propositions,  in  its  own  domain. 
I  feel  that  science  is  not  responsible  for 
any  errors  of  scientists,  either  in  the  mis- 
construction of  the  Bible,  or  in  offences 
which  their  share  of  human  frailty  may 
have  led  them  occasionally  to  commit 
against  the  known  laws  of  rational  discus- 
sion. And,  lastly,  I  am  grateful  both  to 
science  and  to  scientists  for  having  assisted, 
or  for  having  compelled,  those  who  believe 
to  correct  errors  which,  in  the  wantonness 
of  power,  they  may  too  long  have  cherished, 
and  to  submit  all  their  claims  to  free  and 
critical  investigation. 

The  retreat  from  an  untenable  to  a  ten- 
able position  is  in  itself  an  unmixed  good. 
We  feel  that  we  have  redressed  a  wrong 
which  had  been  done  to  Truth ;  and  we 
breathe  the  more  freely  for  the  act.  Still 
there  is  a  retribution  in  store  for  error ;  and, 
given  all  the  conditions  of  human  feeling, 
thought,  and  action,  this  recession  is  an 
operation  of  invariable  danger,  and,  for  the 
time  at  least,  of  mixed  result.  Happy 
they  who  accurately  know,  and  who  exactly 
realize  to  themselves,  in  the  practical  part 
of  their  being,  what  it  is  that  they  ought  to 


CONCL  US  I  ON. 


307 


abandon  and  what  to  retain,  nor  only  to  re- 
tain, but  to  uphold  with  a  determination  en- 
hanced in  proportion  to  the  difficulties  of 
the  day.  But  in  the  minds  of  many,  per- 
haps of  the  greater  part,  the  dominant  sense, 
at  least  for  a  time,  will  be  that  they  have  ! 
passed  trom  a  ground  old  and  familiar  to  jf 
one  new  and  strange  ;  that  they  have  parted 
with  something,  they  do  not  quite  know  • 
how  much  ;  that  if  they  have  been  wrong 
■once,  they  may,  perhaps,  be  wrong  again. 
And  then  it  is  so  much  easier  to  believe  in 
a  volume,  which  the  hand  could  grasp,  than 
to  hold  fast  the  mental  conception  of  a 
Revelation  conveyed  in  that  volume.  True, 
such  a  conception  of  God  in  the  Bible, 
which  may  be,  but  ought  not  to  have  been, 
a  new  one,  is  strictly  and  solidh^  analogous 
to  the  familiar,  and  equally  indispensable, 
conceptions  of  God  in  Nature,  God  in 
Providence,  God  in  the  Christian  Church 
But  these  we  had  from  our  cradles;  they 
were  thoroughly  congenial  through  use- 
To  apply  the  same  rule  to  the  Bible  is 
really  to  integrate,  rather  than  to  disinte- 
grate, the  idea  of  our  knowledge  of  God. 
But  there  is  something  like  the  discomfort 
•of  a  new  habiliment  to  be  got  over ;  and  '■■ 
there  are  the  ready,  sometimes,  perhaps,  f 
the  too  ready,  taunts  of  the  adversary  to  be 
endured. 


308 


CONCL  USION. 


I  will  not  dwell  at  large  upon  other  diffi- 
culties springing  from  errors  or  the  incau- 
tion  of  believers ;  but  they  are  grave  in 
their  nature.  Whenever,  under  the  idea  of 
magnifying  the  grace  or  favor  of  God,  we- 
derogate  from  His  inmiutable  righteousness 
and  justice  ;  and  whenever,  in  exalting  the 
unspeakable  mercy  of  His  pardon,  we  un- 
hinge its  inseparable  alliance  with  a  pro- 
found and  penetrating  moral  work  in  the 
creature  pardoned :  then  we  draw  down- 
dangers  upon  the  Christian  system  greater 
far  than  can  ever  be  entailed  upon  it  by  its 
enemies.  But  there  may  be  worse  still  than 
this.  Worse  there  will  be,  if  the  believer 
in  Christ  holds  the  doctrine  without  giving- 
effect  to  it  in  his  life;  and  worst  of  all,  if 
while  he  holds  it  he  not  only  is  betrayed 
into  the  ordinary  weaknesses  or  excesses  of 
human  nature,  but  forgets  also,  and  derides 
or  disregards  those  primal  sanctions  of 
natural  morality,  which  vice  itself  is  not 
always  hardened  enough  to  discard.  The 
constitution  of  the  family,  the  ties  between  its 
members,  the  nature  of  the  woman  and  of  the 
man,  and  the  relation  of  each  one  of  them  to 
himself,  to  that  self,  which  is  entrusted  by 
God  to  every  one  of  us  to  study  and  to  re- 
vere, as  well  as  to  cleanse,  to  cherish,  and  ta 
sanctify  ;  all  these  are  regulated  by  laws  the 
oldest,    holiest,  and  most  profound   of  all.. 


CONCLUSION. 


309 


Progress  may  be  traced  and  tested  by  its  re- 
gard for  these  sacrosanct,  though  unwritten, 
ordinances.  According  as  such  regard  is  paid 
or  not  paid,  we.  shall  know  whether  such 
progress  be  a  realty  or  an  imposture  ;  and 
Christianity  itself  would  lose  all  its  titles  were 
it  capable  of  an  attempt  to  disturb  them. 

In  the  class  of  difficulties  thus  roughly 
suggested  has  been,  as  I  believe,  not,  indeed, 
a  legitimate,  but  a  powerfully  operative, 
cause  for  the  increase  of  scepticism. 

But  the  gravest  portion  of  the  case  re- 
mains. Negation  is  in  part,  and  it  professes 
and  believes  itself  to  be  altogether,  an  affair 
of  the  intellect.  It  proclaims,  for  example, 
that  the  reason  why  unbelief  has  (at  the 
moment)  so  much  advanced,  is  that  dogmas 
like  those  of  the  Trinity,  the  Incarnation, 
the  Sacraments,  and  the  future  judgment 
have  become  insufferable  to  the  cultivated 
human  understanding.  The  conviction 
which  possesses  my  mind,  and  which  I  may 
find  it  difficult  to  express  in  an  unexcep- 
tionable manner,  is  that  the  main  operative 
cause,  which  has  stimulated  the  growth  of 
modern  negation,  is  not  intellectual  but 
moral ;  and  is  to  be  found  in  the  increased 
and  increasing  dominion  of  the  things  seen 
over  the  things  unseen.* 

*  In  a   work  of  great    ability  just  issued,  and    termed 
"Scientific  Theology,"    Mr.   Barber,    a  civil    engineer. 


2IO  CONCLUSION. 

Such  a  proposition  may  at  first  sight  ap- 
pear to  carry  an  odious  meaning,  pharisaical 
in  the  worst  sense  of  the  word  ;  a  meaning- 
which  would  provoke  and  might  justify,  an 
angry  reply.  It  might  be  interpreted  as- 
implying  that  the  elevation  of  moral  char- 
acter in  individuals  varied  with  and  accord- 
ing to  the  amount  of  their  dogmatic  belief; 
a  proposition  which  in  my  view  is  untrue, 
offensive,  and  even  absurd.  Had  I  ever 
been  inclined  to  such  a  conception,  the  ex- 
perience of  my  life  would  long  ago  have 
undeceived  me.  My  meaning  is  a  very  dif- 
ferent one.  I  speak  of  that  which  touches 
not  this  or  that  man  only,  but  us  all.  We 
have  altered  the  standard  of  wants  ;  we  have 
multiplied  the  demands  of  appetite ;  we  have 
established  a  new  state  of  social  tradition, 
of  that  tradition  which  forms  and  guides  us, 
apart  from  and  antecedently  to  thought  or 
choice  of  our  own.  We  have  created  a  new 
atmosphere,  which  we  breathe  into  ourselves 
and  by  breathing  which  our  composition  is 
modified  unawares,  according  to  the  ingre- 
dients which  that  atmosphere  contains.  I  do 
not  say  that  we  are  the   creatures  of  what 

treats  (chap.  iii.  p.  41)  the  question,  "Why  does  not  re- 
ligion reach  the  masses?"  His  conclusion  is  stated 
thus :  "  The  weak  point  is  clearly  the  loss  of  spiritual 
motive,  and  increased  strength  of  natural  motives  as 
springs  of  action  and  thought." 


CONCLUSION. 


311 


surrounds  us,  for  we  have  power  to  reflect 
upon  and  to  control  it.  Yet,  reflection  and 
control  are  exercised  but  little,  in  comparison 
with  the  need  for  them  ;  and,  in  the  absence 
of  such  exercise,  it  is  the  surrounding  at- 
mosphere, it  is  the  ordinary  standard,  ac- 
cepted, and  to  a  great  extent  necessarily- 
accepted,  without  examination,  that  both 
supplies  the  stock  wherewith  we  individually 
begin  the  great  adventure  of  the  world,  and 
that  guides  our  life,  except  in  the  rare  cases 
where  depravity  on  one  side,  or  Christian 
heroism  on  the  other,  causes  us  to  adopt 
a  separate  standard  for  ourselves.  Where 
both  range  only  within  the  zone  marked  out 
by  fashionable  opinion,  it  is  sadly  easy  to 
point  out  men  of  high  virtue  with  little  creed, 
and  men  of  low  virtue  with  much  creed,  in 
the  discipline  and  conduct  of  their  personal 
lives  respectively.  And,  in  the  region  of 
opinion,  it  often  seems  as  if  liberty  and 
justice  among  men  fared  quite  as  well  with 
the  heterodox,  as  with  the  orthodox. 

A  large  part  of  these  grave  and  even  ter- 
rible anomalies  is  no  doubt  due  to  the  fact, 
that  to  each  of  us  personally  our  creed  has 
come,  not  with  the  throes  of  struggle,  sacri- 
fice, and  strong  conviction,  but  rather,  like 
most  of  what  we  hold — an  easy  tenure! — 
by  descent,  through  others,  not  from  our- 
selves ;  as  matter  of  course,  not  of  choice 


312 


CONCLUSION. 


and  effort ;  so  that  it  sits  upon  us  like  an 
outward  badge,  rather  than  pervades  us  as  a 
principle  and  a  power. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  how  true  it  will 
be  found  that  the  sovereign  tradition  which 
has  filled  the  air  is  the  Christian  tradition. 
This  it  is,  which  has  made  possible  what 
without  it  would  have  been  wholly  beyond 
reach.  This  it  is,  which  carries  noiselessly 
into  many  minds  and  characters  those  opin- 
ions on  behalf  of  virtue,  of  self-denial,  and 
of  philanthropy,  together  with  the  power 
of  acting  upon  them,  which  are  often  found 
so  honorably  to  distinguish  creedless  men. 
Just  as  many,  who  do  not  reject  Christian- 
ity, know  not  why  or  how  they  came  to  hold 
it,  so  many,  who  have  abjured  Christianity, 
know  not  that,  in  the  best  of  their  thought, 
their  nature,  and  their  practice,  they  are  ap- 
propriating its  fruits.  What  is  the  modern 
word  altruism  ?  As  to  its  meaning,  it  is 
simply  the  second  great  commandment  of 
the  Christian  law,  which  was  "  like  unto  the 
first."  As  to  its  form,  it  is  merely  a  dis- 
guise which  has  been  put  upon  a  borrowed 
idea,  so  that  it  often  fails  to  be  traced  to  its 
true  original.  And  this  not  by  a  conscious, 
but,  if  the  phrase  may  be  pardoned,  by  an 
unconscious  fraud.  We  find  ourselves  in 
possession  of  the  code  of  Christian  ethics, 
which  has   gradually  pervaded  life,  institu- 


CONCLUSION. 


313 


tions,  manners,  and  has  become  so  blended 
with  our  ordinary  hfe  that  the  memory  of 
its  divine  origin  has  faded  away,  as  though 
it  were  hke  the  title-deed  of  some  inherit- 
ance which  we  hold  by  unquestioned  use. 
If  we  wish  to  know  what  the  Christian  tra- 
dition has  done  for  us,  we  must  examine  the 
moral  standard  of  nations  who  have  differed 
from  us  mainly  in  not  having  it.  For  ex- 
ample, we  must  look  to  the  Greeks  of  the 
fifth  century  before  Christ,  or  the  Romans 
at.  and  after  .the  period  of  the  Advent,  whose 
moral  degradation  was  not  less  conspicuous 
than  the  intellectual  splendor  of  the  one, 
or  the  constructive  political  genius  of  the 
other. 

My  twofold  proposition  is  that  we  have 
before  us  an  increased  power  of  things  seen, 
and  that  this  increased  power  implies  a 
diminishing  hold  upon  us  of  things  unseen. 
The  question  is  no  new  one.  Throughout 
the  history  of  mankind,  the  invisible,  and  the 
future  which  is  part  of  the  invisible,  have 
been  in  standing  competition  with  what  may 
be  termed  the  tilings  of  this  world. 

"Two  ma<^nets,  lieaveii  and  earth,  allure  to  bliss; 
The  larger  loadstone  that,  the  nearer  tliis; 
The  weak  attraction  of  the  greater  fails, 
We  nod  awhile,  but  neighborhood  prevails."  * 

There  has  never  been   a   time   in   human 
*  Dryden,  "  Hind  and  Panther,"  part  iii. 


3H 


CONCLUSION. 


history  to  compare  with  the  last  half  century 
in  two  vital  respects  ;  the  multiplication  of 
wealth,  and  the  multiplication  of  the  enjoy- 
ments which  wealth  procures  ;  two  things 
separate,  yet  concurrent,  and  morally  allied. 
To  take  a  familiar  example  :  men  (and  the 
commodities  they  depend  on)  now  travel  at 
(say)  one-fourth  of  the  former  cost,  just 
when  they  have  also  an  enlargement  of  their 
means  to  bear  the  cost  of  travelling.  True, 
this  pervading  change  has  gone,  to  an  im- 
mense extent,  towards  the  cure  of  actual 
want,  and  towards  extending  the  sphere  of 
that  sufficiency,  that  modest  and  humble 
comfort,  which  do  not  at  all  come  within  the 
scope  of  the  present  argument.  But  it  has 
also  extended  largely  to  the  spheres  of 
leisure  and  of  comparative  affluence;  and  in 
those  spheres  it  is  generally  true  that  the 
apparatus  of  enjoyment  has  been  immensely 
developed  in  small  things  and  great,  that 
wants  and  appetites  have  grown  along  with 
it,  and  that  if  "  the  world  was  too  much 
with  us  "  when  Wordsworth  wrote  his  noble 
sonnet,  it  is  more  with  us  now  than  it  was 
then.  Obviously,  almost  mathematically, 
the  increased  powers  of  worldly  attraction 
disturb  the  balance  of  our  condition,  unless 
and  until  they  are  compensated  by  increased 
powers  of  unworldly  attraction  and  eleva- 
tion. Whence  are  such  compensating  powers 


conclusion: 


315 


to  be  had  ?  I  am  afraid  we  can  hardly  say- 
that,  in  the  spheres  now  under  view,  there 
has  been  such  a  growth  in  unworldly 
motives  and  ideas,  as  to  countervail  the 
augmented  strength  of  worldly  attachment. 
And  I  apprehend  that,  if  the  unseen  world 
and  the  ideas  belonging  to  it  operate  upon 
us  with  a  proportionately  diminished  force, 
it  follows,  almost  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 
creeds,  which  belong  to  that  circle  of  unseen 
associations,  will  be  more  dimly  and  there- 
fore more  feebly  appreciated.  Materialism 
as  a  formulated  system  is  probably  not  upon 
the  increase.  Those  who  think,  as  I  am 
compelled  to  think,  about  the  intellectual 
calibre  and  capabilities  of  such  a  system, 
will  hardly  include  such  a  growth  among 
the  objects  of  their  apprehension.  But  the 
power  of  a  silent,  unavowed,  unconscious 
materialism  is  a  very  different  matter.  I 
think  Professor  Max  Miiller  has  said  that 
without  language  there  cannot  be  thought. 
And  this  I  suppose  is  true  of  all  organized 
and  conscious  thought.  But  there  are  in 
human  nature  a  multitude  of  undeveloped 
(so  to  speak)  embryonic  forces,  of  impres- 
sions receiv^ed  from  without,  and  finding  a 
congenial  soil  within,  which  never  ripen  to 
maturity,  or  make  their  way  into  articulate 
speech,  or  obtain  a  defined  place  in  our 
consciousness. 


3i6  CONCLUSION. 

My  belief  is  that  at  this  moment  these 
unspoken  and  untested  movements,  not  so 
much  of  mind,  as  of  appetite,  or,  to  use  a 
milder  word,  propensity,  pressing  upon 
mind,  these  not  thoughts,  but  rudiments  of 
thought,  are  at  work  among  us,  and  within 
us  ;  and  that,  were  they  translated  or  ex- 
panded into  words,  their  sense  would  be  no 
more  nor  less  than  the  old  vulgar  sense  of 
those,  who  in  every  age  have  held  that  after 
all  this  world  is  the  only  world  we  securely 
know  ;  and  that  the  only  labor  that  is  worth 
laboring,  the  only  care  worth  caring,  the 
only  joy  worth  enjoying,  are  the  labor,  the 
care,  the  joy  that  begin  and  end  with  it. 
What  can  be  more  natural  (in  the  lower 
sense  of  nature)  than  that  among  those  on 
whom  this  world  really  smiles,  together 
with  the  increasing  gravitation  towards  a 
terrestrial  centre,  too  often  a  creeping  palsy 
should  silently  come  over  the  inward  life  ? 
And  how  easy  it  is  to  understand  that, 
when  such  a  palsy  has  set  in,  a  new  and 
less  ungenial  color  is  imparted  to  whatever 
undermines  the  written  Word,  or  the  great 
Christian  tradition,  or  in  whatever  other 
way  repels,  or  blinds  and  deadens,  the 
sense  of  the  presence  of  God,  and  silences 
the  reproaches  of  the  voice  within.  So 
that  it  is  not  either  real  or  pretended  science, 
nor   is   it  even  the  errors  and  excesses  of 


CONCLUSION. 


317 


believers,  illegitimately  charged  upon  belief, 
that  form  the  root  of  the  mischief.  It  is 
the  increased  force  within  us  of  all  which 
is  sensuous  and  worldly  that  furnishes 
every  sceptical  argument,  good,  bad,  or 
indifferent,  with  an  unseen  ally,  and  that 
recruits  many  and  many  a  disciple  of  the 
negative  teaching.  He  indeed  dreams  that 
by  the  free  admission  of  doubt  he  is  paying 
homage  to  truth,  when  in  reality  he  is  only 
pampering  the  inferior  life;  for  he  allows 
fresh  coadjutors,  with  unexamined  creden- 
tials, to  enter  and  to  reinforce  its  already 
overweening  power.  Ideas  in  themselves 
weak  are  backed  by  propension,  which  is 
ever  strong.  A  latent  conspiracy  is  estab- 
lished, and  two  knights  ride  forth  together 
to  the  war,  one  of  them  fairly  exhibiting 
his  countenance,  but  the  other  with  his 
vizor  down. 

And  the  chain  of  cause  and  consequence 
is  something  like  this.  The  Cliristian  Creed 
generates  a  Christian  tradition  of  idea  and 
conduct.  Of  this  tradition  men  do  not 
disown  the  precepts ;  they  only  deny  the 
parentage.  And  then  there  appears  some 
great  thinker,  some  really  venerable  man, 
who  has  learned  to  cherish  piety,  while  he 
discards  dogma.  The  next  order  of  oper- 
ators in  the  field  carry  the  worl-c  a  stage 
further,  and   cherish    morality,  while   they 


3i8 


CONCLUSION. 


discard  piety.  And  the  anti-moral,  anti- 
spiritual  force,  that  is  strong  even  if  it  be 
hidden  in  us  all,  using  what  is  substantive 
in  the  work  as  a  cover  for  what  is  destruc- 
tive, looks  on  with  complacency,  and  swells 
the  chorus  of  applause.  The  sceptical 
argument  is  in  reality  little  more  than  a 
graft,  set  into,  and  deriving  its  life  and 
energy  mainly  from,  a  tree  stronger  and 
more  enduring  than  itself 

In  thus  stating  my  conviction  that  it  is 
the  great  world-power  within  us  and  around 
us,  which  at  the  present  time  gives  to  scep- 
ticism the  chief  part  of  its  breadth  and  its 
impetus,  it  will  be  seen  that  my  remarks 
have  little  application  to  the  officers  or  the 
soldiers  of  the  army  ;  to  those  who  really, 
and  it  may  be  laboriously,  think  out  subjects 
admitted  to  be  arduous  for  themselves. 
They  apply  more  to  the  camp-followers, 
who  largely  outnumber  both,  and  whose 
voices  are  not  less  good  than  others  to 
swell  an  acclamation,  as  Falstaff's  recruits 
were  not  less  good  than  others  to  fill  a  pit. 
The  opinions  of  a  man  are  due  partly  to 
himself,  partly  to  his  environment ;  in  the 
thinking  man  mainly  to  himself,  though 
even  he  may  be  affected  by  latent  influences 
never  consciously  present  to  his  thoughts; 
mainly,  sometimes  wholly,  to  environment 
in   those  who  do   not  think  ;  and  environ- 


CONCL  US  I  ON. 


319 


ment,  I  need  hardly  say,  includes  the  idols 
and  the  fancies,  the  shadows  and  the  phan- 
toms, of  the  passing  day. 

I  must,  however,  in  drawing  these  obser- 
vations to  a  close,  for  a  moment  change  my 
tone.  In  their  nature  apologetic,  they 
themselves  require  an  apology ;  and  an 
apology,  too,  which  is  also  in  the  nature 
of  protest.  They  are  intended  to  meet,  so 
far  as  they  go,  a  state  of  things  peculiar 
and  perhaps  without  example,  in  which 
multitudes  of  men  call  into  question  the 
foundations  of  our  religion  and  the  pre- 
rogatives of  our  sacred  books,  without  any 
reference  to  either  their  capacity  or  their 
opportunities  for  so  grave  an  undertaking. 
In  other  matters,  qualification  must  be 
known  or  shown  ;  in  religion,  it  is  taken  for 
granted. 

We  have  to  bring  equally  into  view,  on 
the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  two  great 
propositions.  On  the  one  hand,  the  Chris- 
tian religion  stands  on  the  foundation  of  free 
and  intelligent  assent.  On  the  other  hand 
every  man,  whatever  be  his  position,  founds, 
and  reasonably,  nay,  necessarily  founds,  the 
actions  and  experiences  of  his  life  principally 
upon  trust.  Upon  trust,  no  doubt,  which  is 
both  intelligent  and  free;  but  still  upon 
trust.  Upon  trust,  sometimes  in  particular 
individuals,  sometimes  upon  traditions  which 


320  CONCLUSION. 

are,  in  a  narrower  or  wider  sphere,  the  tra- 
ditions of  his  race.  Every  one  acting  a  re- 
sponsible part  in  the  world,  be  it  great  or 
small,  and  be  it  acted  with  or  without  con- 
sciousness of  its  character,  is  continually 
working  for  others  as  well  as  for  himself; 
is  establishin<j  and  verif\-in<7  on  behalf  of 
others,  and  in  lieu  of  others,  intellectual 
conclusions  or  material  facts,  which  are 
needful  for  human  life,  but  which  the  con- 
ditions of  human  life  do  not  permit  men  in 
each  case  to  establish  and  verify  for  them- 
selves. Still,  to  establish  and  verif)'  for  our- 
selves is  best.  Independent  knowledge  is 
to  be  preferred  where,  and  as,  it  can  be  had. 
The  limiting  law  is  found  in  capacity  and 
in  opportunity.  Where  we  cannot,  and  this 
is  often,  let  us  refuse  to  seek  refuge  in  the 
falsehood  of  a  pretended  or  supposed  ex- 
amination. 

But  it  seems  to  be  beyond  doubt  that, 
more  perhaps  in  these  days  than  of  old, 
numbers  both  of  women  and  of  men  ques- 
tion the  religion  delivered  to  them  from  of 
old  without,  or  in  excess  of,  both  capacit}' 
and  opportunity.  The  turn  and  training  of 
the  mind,  the  nature  of  callings  and  pur- 
suits, make  it  for  some  of  us  reasonable  and 
necessary  to  put  the  great  historic  revela- 
tion on  its  trial  as  to  its  evidences  of  fact 
and  doctrine,  and  its  relation  to  the  char- 


CONCLUSION.  321 

acter  and  condition  of  man.  This  search- 
ing process  is  in  itself  thoroughly  normal  ; 
and  its  application  to  the  subject-matter, 
and  the  commonly  affirmative  results  of  such 
application,  through  so  many  ages  and  in 
minds  so  many  and  so  great,  have  continu- 
ally added  force  to  the  authority  with  which 
the  Gospel  lays  claim  to  our  assent  and  our 
obedience. 

As  to  the  mass  of  mankind,  however, 
reason  teaches  that  the  presumption  is  for 
each  man  in  favor  of  that  which  he  has  re- 
ceived, until  he  has  found  solid  cause  to 
question  it.  This  is  the  rule  taught  by 
common  sense,  and  established  in  common 
life.  It  is  doubt,  and  not  belief,  of  the 
things  received,  which  ought  in  all  cases  to  be 
put  upon  its  defence,  and  to  show  its  creden- 
tials :  credentials,  not  necessarily  in  terms  of 
demonstration,  but  of  rational  likelihood. 
But  untested  doubt,  which  often  makes  a 
lodgment  in  our  minds,  is  a  tenant  without 
a  title,  a  dangerous  and  in  the  main  an  un- 
lawful guest.  It  assumes  unawares,  and  in 
default  of  examination,  the  attitude  of  dem- 
onstrated negation.  It  paralyzes  action  ;  it 
casts  into  the  shade  the  sense  of  duty,  and 
of  the  Divine  presence  encompassing  us  in 
all  our  ways ;  and  it  reduces  the  pulse  of 
our  moral  health.  Doubt  may  emancipate 
us.     Or  it  may  enslave  us.     But  it  must  be 

21 


222  CONCLUSION. 

either  a  friend  or  an  enemy :  it  cannot  be  a 
neutral.  And  those  doubts,  which  cannot 
be  tested,  ought  not  to  be  entertained  as 
having  a  title  to  affect  conduct  or  belief. 
And  such  inquiries  as,  from  being  inade= 
quate,  are  illusor)^  are  but  fresh  forms  of 
temptation  from  the  path  of  dut}".  Inquiry 
should  be  undertaken  as  a  solemn  duty, 
when  it  can  be  made  the  subject  of  effect- 
ive prosecution.  But  if  we  have  not  the 
means  of  effective  prosecution,  the  so-called 
inquiry  is  a  pretence  and  an  imposture; 
and,  under  its  name,  we  become  the  mere 
victims  of  assumptions  due  to  prejudice, 
to  fashion,  to  propensity,  to  appetite,  to 
the  insidious  pressure  of  the  world-power, 
to  temptation  in  every  one  of  its  Pro- 
tean shapes.  The  universal  vocation  of  man 
is  for  each  to  regulate  his  own  proper 
conduct  in  his  own  proper  sphere.  A  noble 
task  for  all,  but  even  this  an  arduous  task  ; 
a  task  so  arduous,  that  none  can  perform  it 
in  perfection.  Duty  does  not  require  us  to 
arrive  at  conclusions  on 

"Fixed  fate,  free-will,  foreknowledge  absolute," 

much  less  on  the  yet  deeper  and  darker 
speculations  which  lie  bc}-ond,  and  wliicl),  so 
far  as  they  are  formidable,  all  run  up  into 
one  single,  one  perhaps  impenetrable  prob- 
lem,   the    presence  and    action    of    evil    in 


CONCLUSION. 


323 


the  world.  The  Christian  faith  and  the 
Holy  Scriptures  arm  us  with  the  means  of 
neutralizing  and  repelHng  the  assaults  of 
evil  in  and  from  ourselves.  That  is  a  prac- 
tical answer.  Mist  may  rest  upon  the  sur- 
rounding landscape,  but  our  own  path  is 
visible  from  hour  to  hour,  from  day  to  day. 

"  I  do  not  ask  to  see 
The  distant  scene ;  one  step  enough  for  me." 

Speculation,  which  is  purposeless,  becomes 
irreverent;  and  irreverent  speculation  on 
the  doings  and  designs  of  God,  by  those 
who  believe  in  Him,  is  itself  a  sin.  To 
leave  the  duty  of  governing  conduct,  to 
which  every  one  of  us  is  called,  for  other 
functions  to  which  we  are  not  called,  unless 
the  power  of  following  them  reasonably 
guarantees  our  vocation  for  the  work,  is 
morally  to  pass  from  food  to  famine.  It  is 
as  if  one  who  possesses  a  piece  or  two  of 
crockery  full  of  cracks,  should  announce 
that  he  desires  to  give  a  sumptuous  banquet 
to  the  neighborhood. 

But  besides  acknowledging  that  the 
proper  pre-conditions  of  legitimate  inquiry 
are  adequate  capacity  and  adequate  oppor- 
tunity, and  deploring  the  course  of  those 
who  treat  naked  and  unreasoned  doubt 
as  casting  a  burden  of  proof  upon  belief, 
we  must  bear  in  mind  that  religious  inquiry. 


324 


CONCL  US/ON. 


thougli  it  may  raise  conflicting  issues,  is  not 
like  a  suit  between  parties  who  meet  upon 
equal  terms,  or  the  conflict  of  Emperors 
warring  for  a  territory  in  dispute.  Our 
Saviour  astonished  tlie  people  because,  in- 
stead of  being  lost  in  the  mazes  of  arbitrary 
and  vicious  excrescences,  that  darkened  the 
face  of  religion.  He  taught  them  "  with 
authority,  and  not -as  the  scribes."  Taught 
them  with  authority,  that  is  to  say,  with  the 
title  to  command,  and  with  the  force  of 
command.  If  God  has  : '  ^en  us  a  revela- 
tion of  His  will,  whether  i  the  laws  of  our 
nature,  or  in  a  kingdom  of  grace,  that  revela- 
tion not  only  illuminates,  but  binds.  Like 
the  credentials  of  an  earthly  ambassador,  it 
is  just  and  necessary  that  the  credentials  of 
that  revelation  should  be  tested.  But  if  it 
be  found  genuine,  if  we  have  proofs  of  its 
being  genuine  equal  to  those  of  which,  in  the 
ordinary  concerns  of  life,  reason  acknowl- 
edges the  obligatory  character,  then  we  find 
ourselves  to  be  not  independent  beings 
engaged  in  an  optional  inquiry,  but  the  ser- 
vants of  a  Master,  the  pupils  of  a  Teacher, 
the  children  of  a  Father,  and  each  of  us 
already  bound  with  the  bonds  which  those 
relations  imply.  Then  head  and  knee  must 
bow  before  the  Eternal,  and  the  Divine  will 
must   be  embraced    and   followed  by  man 


CONCLUSIOX. 


325 


witli  all  his  heart,  with  all  his  mind,  with  all 
his  soul,  and  with  all  his  strength. 

I  have  yet  one  more  closing  word.  I 
have  desired  to  make  this  humble  offering 
at  the  shrine  of  Christian  belief  in  general, 
and  have  sought  wholly  to  avoid  the  ques- 
tions which  concern  this  or  that  particular 
form  of  it.  For  there  is  a  common  cause, 
which  warrants  and  requires  common 
efforts.  Far  be  from  me  the  intention  here- 
by to  undervalue  particular  beliefs.  I  have 
not  intentionally  said  a  word  to  disparage 
an)'  of  them.  It  will  in  my  view  be  an 
evil  day,  and  a  day  of  calamity,  when  men 
are  tempted,  even  by  the  vision  of  a  holy 
object,  to  abate,  in  any  region  or  in  the 
smallest  fraction,  the  authority  of  conscience, 
or  to  forget  that  the  supreme  title  and  the 
supreme  efficacy  of  truth  lie  in  its  integrity. 


Note  on  the  Gadarene  Miracle. 

[The  miracle  of  the  possessed  Gadarene, 
or  Gergesene,  raises  in  so  pointed  a  form 
the  question  of  demoniacal  possession  gen- 
erally, that  it  has  supplied  the  central  point 
in  the  discussion  of  the  case,  and  that  other 
points,  less  salient  on  the  surface,  have 
received  a  smaller  share  of  attention  than 
they  deserve. 


2  26  conclusion: 

The  question  may  of  course  fairly  be 
put,  whether  the  movement  of  the  devils  by 
permission  into  the  swine  involved  an  in- 
justice to  an  innocent  owner,  which  would 
not  be  at  all  in  harmony  with  the  usually 
beneficent  character  of  our  Lord's  ministry, 
and  especially  of  His  miracles. 

Both  Bishop  Wordsworth  *  in  his  Com- 
mentary and  Archbishop  Trench  refer  to 
Joseph  us.  The  Bishop  says,  "  Gadara  is 
mentioned  by  Josephus  as  a  Greek  city,  and 
hence  the  swine."  I  am,  however,  under 
the  impression  that  both  these  excellent 
authors  may  have  insufficiently  examined 
the  effect  of  the  passages  in  Josephus,  which 
relate  to  the  subject.  These,  so  far  as  I 
know,  are  three  in  number,  and  are  found 
in  the  "Antiq.  Jud.,"  xvii.  13,  4,  and  the 
"  De  Bello  Jud.,"  iii.  7.  I,  and  iv.  7,  3.  In 
the  first-named  of  these  Jo.sephus  un- 
doubtedly says  that  Gadara  was,  like  Gaza 
and  Hippos,  a  Greek  c\X.y,  HcUciiis  polls  ; 
but  he  explains  his  meaning  by  adding,  that 
these  cities  had  been  taken  by  the  Roman 
authority  out  of  the  Diocese  of  Jerusalem, 
and  added  to  that  of  Syria.  The  sense 
seems  to  be  not  that  these  cities  were  in^ 
habited  by  a  Greek  population,  but  that 
they  had  politically  been  taken  out  of  Judaea 
and     added    to    Syria,    which     I    presume 

*  In  W.,  and  Trench  on  Ihe  Miracles,  p.  185. 


CONCLUSION.  327 

was  classified  as  simply  Hellenic,  a  portion 
of  the  great  Greek  Empire  erected  by 
Alexander.  As  to  the  population  of  Gadara, 
the  passage  "  De  Bello  Jud.,"  iii.  7,  i,  ap- 
pears absolutely  to  prove  that  it  was  a 
Jewish  and  not  a  Greek  population  ;  while 
Josephus  also  specifies,  in  "  De  Bello  Jud.," 
iv.  7,  3,  that  many  of  the  inhabitants  were 
wealthy.  For  he  mentions,  in  iii.  7,  I,  that 
when  Vespasian  took  the  city  he  caused  all 
the  adult  males  to  be  put  to  death,  and  that 
he  did  this  partly  on  account  of  a  particular 
misdeed,  but  partly  {jnisei  ton  ethnous)  out 
of  hatred  towards  the  nation  or  race,  evi- 
dently the  Jewish  nation,  not  possibly  the 
Greek.  The  testimony  of  Josephus,  there- 
fore, does  nothing  to  cast  a  doubt  upon  the 
natural,  and  in  the  absence  of  counter- 
evidence  necessary,  supposition  that  our 
Lord  in  this  case  had  to  deal  with  Hebrews, 
the  ordinary  subjects  of  His  ministry,  bound 
to  the  law  of  Moses,  and  on  this  occasion, 
as  it  would  seem,  justly  punished  for  in- 
fringing it. 

Hudson,  in  his  commentary  on  Josephus, 
"Antiq.  Jud.,"  xvii.  13,  4,  gives  a  strong 
opinion,  with  his  reasons,  that  Gadara  is  a 
wrong  reading,  and  that  we  ought  to  read 
Gerasa.  If  he  is  right,  the  presumption 
founded  on  the  phrase  Hellenis  polls  at  once 
disappears.] 


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